Town Council Settles With Repent America Leader After Barring His Free Speech
by Allie Martin
February 22, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Officials in one Pennsylvania town have admitted they were wrong not to let a Christian activist speak during an open comment period at a public meeting. In July of 2004, Michael Marcavage, head of the Philadelphia-based group Repent America, was prevented from reading from the Bible during a public comment segment of a Lansdowne Borough Council meeting.Marcavage was forcibly removed from the council gathering and charged with disrupting a meeting and disorderly conduct. The criminal charges against him were eventually dropped, however, and the Christian activist filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the Council's actions.
But the Repent America president's attorney, Ted Hoppe, says Lansdowne Borough has settled the lawsuit through what is known as a consent decree. "The importance of this decree is two-fold," he explains. First, "it affirms that Mr. Marcavage's rights were violated; and second, the consent order goes on to affirm that citizens have a constitutionally protected right to address the Borough Council and that the Borough Council agrees that they will not infringe on any constitutionally protected speech."
Lansdowne Borough has also agreed to pay Michael Marcavage's attorney fees, which amount to some $25,000. His legal representative is calling the consent decree a victory, not only for the Christian leader but for First Amendment freedom.
"What happened here was you had a Borough Council who sat there and said to a citizen, 'We're not going to let you exercise your right to free speech and talk about an issue that's important to you and important to the borough,'" Hoppe notes.
"What this decision says," the attorney continues, "is that citizens have the right to get up and address their governmental bodies about issues that are important to them and important to their community without the fear that they're going to be shut down because of the content or viewpoint they're expressing."
The consent decree, in addition to resolving the case in Marcavage's favor, also guarantees every citizen's right to address the Lansdowne Borough Council on any issue of concern related to the affairs of the community, Hoppe says. And the agreement ensures that citizens can do so "without fear of retribution or arrest for exercising their individual right of conscience," he says.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
