On The Front Lines

Rutherford Institute Defends First Amendment Rights of Street Preachers Arrested for Preaching Without a Permit

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in defense of two street preachers who were arrested for allegedly refusing police orders to cease proselytizing at a Princeton, N.J., train station without a non-commercial speech permit. In asking the federal appeals court to reinstate a First Amendment lawsuit filed on behalf of evangelical preachers Don Karns and Robert Parker, Rutherford Institute attorneys are challenging a policy by the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJTC), enforced by the NJTC police, that requires religious speakers to acquire a permit in order to engage in non-commercial speech at the station while waiving the requirement for political speakers.

Attorney John M. Bloor of Drinker, Biddle & Reath, LLP, is assisting The Rutherford Institute in its defense of Karns’ and Parker’s First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“This case sheds light on a disconcerting bureaucratic mindset that wants us to believe that the government has the power to both bestow rights on the citizenry and withdraw those rights when it becomes necessary, whether it’s the right to proselytize on a train platform, the right to address one’s representatives at a city council meeting, or the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “Yet those who founded this country believed that our rights are unalienable, meaning that no man or government can take them away from us. Thus, the problem in this case is not the absence of any specific law allowing free speech on the train platform. Rather, the problem is government officials who have forgotten that they work for us and their primary purpose is to safeguard our rights.”

On June 26, 2012, evangelical preachers Don Karns and Robert Parker went to the Princeton Junction Station of the NJTC and began sharing their Christian beliefs with others at the station. No notices were posted at the station that engaging in First Amendment expression was in any way restricted at the station. Upon arriving at the station, NJTC police officers Kathleen Shanahan and Sandra McKeon Crowe demanded identification from Karns and Parker, informed the preachers that a permit was required in order to engage in non-commercial speech, and ordered them to cease preaching in the absence of a permit. Karns and Parker asserted the train platform was a public area and that they had a First Amendment right to engage in speech there. Parker also attempted to record the interaction with the police using his cell phone, but was ordered to stop doing so by the officers. The preachers were subsequently arrested and charged under New Jersey law with defiant trespass and obstructing an investigation. They were eventually acquitted on all of the charges.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute filed suit against the police and the NJTC accusing them of violating the First Amendment preachers’ rights, discriminating against them based on the religious content of their speech, and violating their Fourth Amendment rights by arresting them without probable cause.

Case History

October 17, 2016: Rutherford Institute Appeals First Amendment Case of Street Preachers Discriminated Against and Arrested for Preaching at Princeton Train Station

April 05, 2016: Rutherford Institute to Appeal First Amendment Case of Street Preachers Discriminated Against and Arrested for Preaching at Princeton Train Station