DETROIT (AP) – A federal appeals court says the constitutional free-speech rights of Christian activists were violated when police told them to leave an Arab-American festival in suburban Detroit or be ticketed.
The case arose from a 2012 incident in which members of a group called Bible Believers were pelted with rocks while carrying a pig’s head and telling Dearborn Muslims at the street festival that they would “burn in hell.”
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it must affirm the First Amendment rights of Bible Believers. Judge Eric Clay, writing for the majority, said “the answer to disagreeable speech is not violent retaliation by offended listeners or ratification of the heckler’s veto through threat of arrest by the police.”
The court said deputies made “next to no attempt” to protect Bible Believers or stop the violence.
The case will now return to federal court in Detroit to determine a financial award for the Christian activists.
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