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A message that challenges readers to consider where they will spend eternity – with or without Jesus – has been given permission to remain alongside a New York highway through a legal settlement obtained by the Alliance Defense Fund.
WND reported just before Christmas when an agreement was reached to allow Daniel Burritt’s message to remain until the case was settled fully.
The ADF said that agreement now has been reached, with the New York Department of Transportation promising to allow Burritt’s tractor-trailer to remain on his private business property that sits beside a public highway.
Burritt, who uses the tractor-trailer to store supplies for his company, Acts II Construction, Inc., placed the message on the trailer – sitting on his private business property along U.S. Route 11 – in August 2007.
The trailer displays this gospel message to each direction of highway traffic:
Your way or God’s way
Jesus said “I am the Way the Truth and the LifeNo man comes to the Father except by Me.”
Will you spend eternity with Jesus?
He first was cited by local town officials over the message, but the charges were withdrawn after the ADF got involved in the case. Then last May, Burritt received a letter from the transportation department, stating his trailer was in violation of state law and would be declared a “public nuisance.”
The agency claimed the trailer required a permit and had to be removed or it would be forcibly removed and Burritt would face legal action. That statement came even though the agency does not require permits for similarly displayed commercial messages.
A lawsuit followed quickly in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York alleging the state violated the U.S. Constitution through discriminatory treatment of Burritt’s speech.
An agreement was reached allowing the trailer message to remain until a court decision could be delivered, and the court later made the agreement formal.
“No Christian should be singled out and penalized for sharing his beliefs,” said Matt Bowman, the ADF’s legal counsel. “After reaching this settlement with NYDOT, we are pleased Mr. Burritt can now freely enjoy his First Amendment right to display a religious message on his own property.”
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