Pastor's rights not violated, federal judge rules

[kweerwolf]

Monroe pastor and anti-gay crusader Ralph Ovadal's rights to free speech were not violated when Madison police told him to remove anti-gay banners over the Beltline in 2003, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge John Shabaz told the Monroe pastor, chairman of Wisconsin Christians United, that testimony in the one-day trial of Ovadal's lawsuit against the city showed that the "spectacle" created by the banners on Sept. 2, 2003, created a traffic hazard with traffic slowing, "but there is nothing that suggests it was the message" that caused the dangerous slowdown or caused police to ask the demonstrators to leave.

"There's no evidence to suggest it was the message. None whatsoever," Shabaz said. "People were asked to leave (the overpasses) only because of the narrow circumstances . . . . You can't do it at rush hour. It isn't the message we (motorists) don't like, it's the fact that we can't get home on time."

Ovadal said an appeal is likely.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local//index.php?ntid=64920

[Ian David]

1. The judge was biased. As a motorist, he had a conflict of interest

<snip>

"There's no evidence to suggest it was the message. None whatsoever," Shabaz said. "People were asked to leave (the overpasses) only because of the narrow circumstances . . . . You can't do it at rush hour. It isn't the message we (motorists) don't like, it's the fact that we can't get home on time."

Obviously, he needs to hire Tom DeLay's lawyer to find a judge that walks to work every morning (or takes the train) because this judge had a vested interest in an unimpeded flow of traffic.