CULTURE of DEATH:Lawsuit after abortion survivor's speech banned

A lawsuit has been filed against the school district in Rapid City, S.D., after a facilities manager refused permission for a community group to use an auditorium to feature the testimony of an abortion survivor."We just don't like to encourage discussion of those types of issues in our facilities," the lawsuit says one of the defendants, Ronald Mincks, announced. Mincks at the time was assistant buildings and grounds supervisor.The dispute is over requests by members of the group Citizens for Life to be granted access to an auditorium for after-school events, just as other community organizations are allowed.The action was filed by the Alliance Defense Fund, a law firm that defends the right "to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding and litigation.""Pro-life groups shouldn't be discriminated against for their beliefs," said Byron Babione, senior legal counsel for the ADF. "They have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in America."The equal access rights of Citizens for Life must be honored regardless of whether school district officials agree with the group's message," he said.The complaint describes how school district policy, while allowing other community groups to use district facilities for a variety of meetings, twice denied Citizens for Life permission, expressly banning meetings with a religious purpose.The complaint said Citizens for Life President Allen Carlson in August 2006 asked for permission for the group to meet at Dakota Middle School's auditorium to host a meeting at which Gianna Jessen, a survivor of a saline abortion, would speak.School officials rejected the request and then refused to comply with an open-records request for documentation about other groups that were granted permission to use the facilities.Last June, the second request was submitted by Carlson. This time the proposed speaker was Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League. In July, Carlson got a telephone call from Mincks, who refused the request."Carlson asked about filling out additional paperwork, or following other protocols, to obtain permission," the lawsuit said."We would deny you anyway," Mincks said, according to the lawsuit.He said that was because Citizens for Life is "too controversial" for the district.When Carlson asked Mincks to put the rejection in writing, Mincks told him, "This is something we don't wish to put in writing," the lawsuit said."School officials are not permitted to engage in viewpoint discrimination, nor can they continue to stonewall this group," said Stephen Wesolick, an ADF-allied attorney who also is representing Citizens for Life.
Peter Wharton, the superintendent, told WND he couldn't talk about the issue or explain his district's facilities-use policy."What we're doing is we're conferring with counsel," he told WND, "looking at what the next appropriate steps are."The district's website, however, includes a large element of community participation in school events. In fact, it includes a section called Partnership Rapid City, in which such organizations as The Abbey Group, Black Hills Corp., Medical Associates of the Black Hills, Ivanhoe International Center, Casey Peterson & Associations, the Kahler Financial Group and others formally are recognized.The action seeks an order banning future discrimination by the district as well as attorneys' fees and "nominal damages" for the alleged violations of the First and 14th Amendment rights to freedom of speech, association and free exercise of religion.
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As in the days of Noah....