The Center for Religious Expression last week
announced the filing of a federal lawsuit in Alaska challenging a rule at the Girdwood, Alaska Forest Fair that prohibits the distribution of religious literature.
Anchorage Daily News has more on the lawsuit:
During the Forest Fair, an annual Girdwood summer festival that celebrates tie-dye, home-spun crafts and public hula-hooping, signs posted on the tall trees alert visitors to three main rules: "No dogs, no politics, no religious orders."
But one of those rules, a doctrine of the fair for more than four decades, now faces a legal challenge. Last week, two evangelical Christians, one of whom is a well-known activist, filed a lawsuit in federal court saying the ban on "religious orders" infringes on their constitutional right to free speech....
The two plaintiffs say they were told that they could not continue to proselytize and distribute literature in the park where the festival is held. They were required to move to sidewalks outside the park to distribute their gospel tracts.
[Thanks to Jeff Pasek for the lead.]
