Georgia man will sue for religious speech arrest

A man who says his constitutional rights were violated when he was arrested for passing out religious literature has filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Cumming, Georgia. His attorney says it's an attempt to make sure the ordinance under which he was arrested is removed from the books.Frederic Baumann has sued in U.S. District Court for North Georgia in relation to his arrest on April 22, 2007, for distributing the literature-which resulted in two days of jail incarceration before a trial prior to which Baumann says he was denied opportunity to obtain legal counsel, according to his Alliance Defense Fund attorney, David Cortman.A Georgia Superior Court judge dismissed all charges against Baumann on August 1, which Cortman says shows the city denied his client his constitutional right to free speech and due process under the law."This is another installment in the continuing saga entitled, 'Do Christians have First Amendment rights of free speech?'" says Cortman. "Although the obvious answer is yes, some government officials don't seem to think so. Frederic Baumann was arrested, jailed, tried, and convicted-all in a two-day time span-for merely distributing religious tracts on a public sidewalk."Cortman asserts the parade ordinance that Baumann was arrested under "has been used as a weapon against religious freedom" and hopes that the federal court will declare it unconstitutional.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/08/georgia_man_will_sue_for_relig.php

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