Dispute over Texas fair's speech restrictions heats up

A dispute over speech restrictions on Christians who might want to share their faith while attending the Texas state fair, the biggest such event in the nation, still is boiling years after it erupted.

Darrel Rundus

The judge who earlier said Christians can mention Christianity verbally while on the fairgrounds but cannot so much as take a tract out of their pocket and give it to someone, now has ordered the Christians to pay tens of thousands of dollars for copying costs for the fair and the city of Dallas, which owns the public property on which the fair is held.

The dispute began several years ago when the fair restricted Christians' speech.

WND reported at the time when a federal court in Texas ruled Christians are allowed to share their faith on the grounds of the fair but ordered if they want to give a tract to anyone, they'll have to buy that right from the fair – at costs estimated to start at $4,500.

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The ruling from U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle came in the dispute between Darrel Rundus and his Great News Network and fair officials, who say the fair is a private organization, and while it uses public property to stage events, the land becomes private when used by fair organizers.

The ruling said GNN members are "free to spread the gospel and distribute religious tracts on the public sidewalks outside Fair Park." The ruling continued that inside the park, Rundus "may continue to orally share his beliefs with fairgoers."

A video, however, documents fair officials excluding Rundus and others from what looks like a public sidewalk in front of the fair gates, telling him the "public sidewalk" is only across the street from the fair:

Patrick Gillen, an attorney on the faculty of Ave Maria College who has been working on the case, said another dispute arose when the judge ordered Rundus to pay tens of thousands of dollars in "copying fees" for the defendants, the fair and city, even though they only provided copies to their own attorneys – and the plaintiffs already had to pay to make their own copies.

The costs totaled some $28,000, and like the decision itself, is facing appeal, Gillen told WND.

He said the system seems to be trying to punish Rundus for his attempt to spread the Gospel.

"They made the copies for their own convenience, now they're heaping the costs on Darrel to punish him," he said.

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He said the core issue is the operation of the Texas fair by a "private" group, which claims that because of its corporate status, the public property used for the fair becomes private, and it can then restrict speech.

WND calls to the state fair asking for comment were not returned.

Rundus argues that handing out information, such as a Gospel tract, is an extension of free speech, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, so the state fair should not be allowed to restrict that activity.

The dispute is not the first time GNN has been in the position of seeking equity from a court. It also went to court after the U.S. Secret Service confiscated about 8,300 tracts that looked similar to U.S. currency. The tracts, however, bore the amount of $1 million, for which there is no real currency.

In that case, the trial court, however, decided the tracts should be considered counterfeit.

The tracts are produced by evangelist Ray Comfort, whose Living Waters Ministry in Southern California has responded by printing hundreds of thousands.

The controversy began when three agents visited GNN and demanded the tracts, telling the group someone had tried to deposit one in a bank account.