Deseret Morning News
Following a
Monday meeting with Salt Lake City Attorney Ed Rutan, Mayor Rocky Anderson said
he thinks the city can censor some of the infamous street preaching that goes on
near LDS Church headquarters downtown.
In the "next
couple of days," Anderson said, the city will produce a document detailing what
sort of speech, words and decibel levels are constitutionally protected and what
speech the city can prohibit. Following the release of that document, Anderson
said he will recommend to the City Council some "fairly minor revisions" of city
ordinances governing free speech.
The changes come
several months after Anderson — dismayed by what he considers boorish behavior
by street preachers — asked Rutan to examine the city's rules governing free
speech.
Rutan, along with Deputy City Attorney Boyd
Ferguson, briefed Anderson Monday after examining between five and 15 city
ordinances that govern various aspects of free speech, including the city's
ordinance on disturbing the peace.
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"We are taking a look at ordinances that potentially impact free
speech," Rutan said.
For years now, Christian street
preachers have descended on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
headquarters during semi-annual conferences and other church events to preach
against the LDS faith. In recent years, street preaching has become more
controversial with reports that the preachers have called LDS women "whores" and
"harlots."
After his meeting with Rutan, Anderson,
himself a former civil rights attorney and ex-American Civil Liberties Union of
Utah board member, said that language is likely illegal — not protected by the
Constitution.
Calling someone's mother, wife or new
bride a "whore" or "harlot," Anderson said, would likely be considered part of
the so-called "fighting words doctrine" — a body of case law explaining that
certain speech is not protected by the First Amendment. These are words that are
so inflammatory they are reasonably likely to incite another person to
violence.
"The concern that I had arose when I first
heard accounts of so-called street preachers yelling at new brides that they are
whores and harlots and telling children that their mothers are whores and
harlots," Anderson said. "That kind of speech is very likely not
constitutionally protected and would be considered fighting words."
This past October, during the church's general conference, two
conference attendees were incited to violence after street preachers donned
sacred religious clothing worn by LDS faithful. The two men were cited for
assault and theft after ripping the clothing off the
preachers.
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