1st Amendment lawsuit names police

Sgt. Stephen Allen, right, kisses another officer to mock Christians who were gathering petition signatures for a marriage amendment in Florida (Florida Family Policy Council)

A Florida police officer who, as WND reported, shut down the operations of an organization collecting petition signatures to put a marriage amendment on a statewide election ballot has been named in a civil rights lawsuit.

The Florida Family Policy Council said it has filed the federal action seeking a judgment against Broward County and Sunrise police officer Sgt. Stephen Allen for violations of the civil rights of volunteers working last summer for the Florida4Marriage amendment.

"We have the highest regard for the law enforcement officers in this state who lay down their lives to protect us every day. But we are simply not going to be discriminated against because certain bad cops do not like our message," said John Stemberger, the president and general counsel of the group, who personally was threatened with arrest by Allen over the issue. "This was a blatant violation of the First Amendment."

The case developed in June 2006 when FFPC staff members and volunteers were collecting petition signatures for the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment as a paid exhibitor under a tent with several other Christian ministries at a Promise Keepers conference in Sunrise.

Then several officers from the Sunrise Police Department appeared and shut down their operations, officials said.

"We had paid a fee to be an exhibitor and had full rights to distribute literature and collect petitions," said Stemberger. "The officer in charge appeared to have a personal agenda and displayed a lack of professionalism as well as an utter disregard for our constitutional rights."

Allen "took it upon himself to lecture the petition collectors of Jesus' view of homosexuality and the Bible's instructions to obey authorities, all the while refusing to produce the legal basis for denying the volunteers' right to collect petitions for Florida4Marriage.org," the organization said.

"To add insult, after removing the Florida4Marriage.org petitions from the exhibit table, Sgt. Allen mockingly kissed another male officer," the group said.

Initial reports from the conference said the officer had been assigned by the city to help with security at the conference, and Stemberger described the behavior as "unprofessional" and "bizarre."

His group had rented a display table at a conference in the Fort Lauderdale area to publicize its effort to collect more than 611,000 signatures on petitions to call for a vote of Florida people. The goal is to protect traditional marriage – between one man and one woman – in the state constitution.

The organization said the police officers "physically removed" the petitions from public view on the table at the tent, then Allen leaned over and kissed another officer in front of the camera of a Christian volunteer.

"No one would have ever believed our story without that photograph. That photograph really captures the attitude that we were approached with," Stemberger said.

In the actual confrontation, Stemberger was called after the officers removed the petitions. He sought further legal counsel from Rick Nelson of American Liberties Institute and then confronted Sgt. Allen.

He said he asked the sergeant what law or ordinance was being violated by the petitions and Allen simply responded with a not-entirely accurate lecture on Jesus' view of homosexuality in the New Testament and the statement that the petition was a "waste of time."

The sergeant then proclaimed he was the authority and "the Bible says that Christians should obey the authorities."

Allen was backed up by four other Sunrise officers and continued to argue "theology" even after Promise Keepers' own security and event officials arrived and explained the petitions were authorized.

Allen also threatened to arrest Stemberger, who stood his ground.

The situation ultimately cooled down when managers for the arena told the sergeant to stand down, the council said.

WND calls to the city and police department weren't returned. But the police agency's website does speak of a "diversified" team of officers.

The petition drive is trying to collect 611,009 signatures to put the issue on the 2008 election ballot. Similar amendments have been approved by voters, sometimes by margins as high as 8-1, in 27 of 28 states where they already have been put on the ballot. The organization says it needs only about 21,000 more to have the issue on the coming ballot in Florida.

"We always have great relationships with the venues and the security details (at the conferences) and that's the first time we ever saw that level of partisanship from security," Promise Keepers spokesman Steve Chavis told WND.

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