Bible-sharing woman
forced off bus

By WND Staff

A woman who was forced off a public bus because she was passing out free Bibles to passengers has filed suit against a government agency, saying her constitutional free-speech rights were violated.

Gail Anderson, who is represented by Liberty Counsel, a civil-liberties legal defense organization, says a Milwaukee County bus driver escorted her off the vehicle after spotting her distributing Bibles to those around her. According to a Liberty Counsel statement, Anderson was then forced to walk home.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday against the Milwaukee County Department of Public Works and Transportation Division challenges the government policy that bars bus riders from distributing any form of literature.

According to Liberty Counsel, the suit also claims the policy is not uniformly enforced, because to do so would require that no one could distribute a business card, directions, or even pass a newspaper from one person to another. Because the bus driver enforced the rule against Anderson and not others, the suit claims he discriminated against her based on the literature in question.

“Removing Ms. Anderson from a bus because she wanted to distribute the Bible to willing recipients reminds me of the discrimination that Rosa Parks faced when she was told to sit in the back of the bus solely because of the color of her skin,” said Liberty Counsel President Mathew Staver in the statement.

“Forcefully removing Ms. Anderson from the bus because she distributed the Bible was a humiliating experience. Passengers don’t shed their constitutional rights when they enter public transportation venues. People exchange addresses, business cards, newspapers or books all the time on public buses. It is unconstitutional to ban all literature distribution or to single out the Christian viewpoint.”