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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Utah ACLU Says City Favors LDS Church In Main Street Lawsuit
Salt Lake Tribune 2Mar00 N1
By Rebecca Walsh: Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah
amended its lawsuit against Salt Lake City and the LDS Church on
Wednesday, bolstering its claims that the sale of a one-block long
stretch of Main Street in Salt Lake City is illegal with a new claim
that the city's actions leading to the sale demonstrated preference
toward the LDS Church, essentially endorsing the LDS Church in
violation of the U.S. Constitution's First and 14th Amendments.
ACLU attorney Stephen Clark filed the amendment after reviewing city
documents that he says show city administrators obscuring facts and
skirting city processes to push through the sale. He says that the
City Council's adoption of the public easement at issue in the
lawsuit was only the last in a series of government steps that eased
the sale, "Salt Lake City was essentially preferring one religion
over others," Clark said.
The sale of the block was announced in December 1998 by then-Mayor
Deedee Corradini and LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. The
sale was approved by the City Council after months of meetings and
review, subject to an easement adopted by the council. However, Clark
alleges that city attorney's "intentionally omitted" from documents
provided to council members the Planning Commission's recommendation
that the plaza be regulated as a public park. Instead, the easement
allows the Church exclusive rights to proselyte and broadcast on the
plaza and regulate what activities may occur there.
Clark alleges that City leaders "have also created an
unconstitutional blurring of the distinction between church property
and public property, giving the indelible impression that the LDS
Church occupies a privileged position in the community and that the
city endorses the LDS Church and its messages, without any secular
purpose," says the amended suit.
The amended lawsuit also adds a new plaintiff, First Unitarian Church
member Craig Axford to the First Unitarian Church, Utahns for
Fairness and the National Organization for Women, the original
plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Axford will, according to the claim, "take
pains to avoid even using the public easement across Main Street so
as not to be confronted with unwelcome governmentally endorsed
religious messages."
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