Pro-Family Group Beats Beantown Bureaucracy, Wins Protest Permit
by Bill Fancher
June 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - The Christian Defense Coalition has whipped the City of Boston in a battle over the right to protest during the Democratic National Convention. When coalition director Pat Mahoney tried to get permits to demonstrate during the convention, he found both the application procedure and the opportunity to protest tightly controlled. The group's demonstration plans were dealt a severe blow by the city's restrictive permit process and regulations, which is why Mahoney says the coalition sought a remedy through litigation.
"We immediately went into federal court to seek injunctive relief against the city of Boston," Mahoney says, "and to the city's credit, they immediately contacted us and said, 'Wait a minute -- is it possible for us to settle this without going to federal court?'"
The coalition's leader agreed to the negotiation request and the sides sat down. "We began an extensive process and dialogue with the City of Boston," he says, "and on Tuesday, the city of Boston, in essence, wrote into the permit process all the changes that we had suggested."
When it was all over, the city had entirely revised the process for getting a permit to demonstrate and had given in to every demand made by the Christian Defense Coalition. Mahoney called the episode a great victory for the First Amendment.
Fresh from this victory, the coalition's director now sets his sights on New York city, the location of the GOP convention. He says that city's permits are also overly restrictive and the Christian Defense Coalition's will very likely be going back to the courts to do battle for believers' constitutionally guaranteed rights.
"We will be in federal court seeking injunctive relief to ensure that Christians will be allowed to pray on the streets and public sidewalks of New York City, prior to the Republican National Convention," Mahoney says.
