NEW ORLEANS — A street preacher sued on Thursday to block a city
ordinance that restricts religious or political speech on Bourbon Street
after dark.
In his federal lawsuit, New Orleans pastor Paul Gros claimed
the city’s “aggressive solicitation” ordinance sets unconstitutional
limits on free speech.
Gros said he was preaching on Bourbon Street with his wife, another
pastor and a friend on the night of May 15 when police ordered him to
stop.
“They told him if he didn’t stop he would be arrested,” said one of his attorneys, Nate Kellum.
Gros
left without being arrested. Less than a month ago, however, police
arrested several preachers on Bourbon Street during the Southern
Decadence gay pride festival.
The city council adopted the
ordinance in October 2011. A violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up
to six months in jail and a $500 fine.
The measure makes it a
crime for anyone to “loiter or congregate on Bourbon Street for the
purpose of disseminating any social, political or religious message
between the hours of sunset and sunrise.”
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