Puyallup Bans Door-to-door Religious Speech

from the ACLU of WA

A suit was filed on July 30 against the City of Puyallup to uphold the religious freedom and free speech rights of United States Mission. The suit seeks an injunction against enforcement of a solicitation ordinance that prevents the religious organization from carrying out its mission of preaching the “Social Gospel.” The suit was filed in US District Court in Tacoma.

“Puyallup’s ordinance interferes with the rights of a religious organization to spread its message. The law is unfair because it places restrictions on religious groups while exempting some door-to-door salespeople,” said ACLU-WA staff attorney Harry Williams.

“Individuals can limit solicitation at their homes by posting ‘No Soliciting’ signs on their property. Local governments may reasonably regulate solicitors, but the Supreme Court repeatedly has struck down laws like Puyallup’s that restrict religious speech,” he added.

United States Mission is a Christian-based nonprofit organization that operates transitional housing for homeless persons. Residents engage in door-to-door solicitation on the mission’s behalf to evangelize and practice the Social Gospel and thereby advance their personal and spiritual growth. Door-to-door solicitation also is the mission’s primary means of support for its social programs.

Due to restrictions that Puyallup has imposed, United States Mission has been unable to engage in door-to-door solicitation in the city. Puyallup’s ordinance requires religious organizations to obtain a license from the city before its members may engage in religious solicitation.

The lawsuit asserts that the ordinance violates the Mission’s rights under the US and Washington state constitutions. The ACLU points out that forcing the Mission’s members to obtain a city-issued license is an impermissible prior restraint on a religious organization’s free speech rights.

Puyallup’s ordinance also unconstitutionally restricts speech on the basis of its content: It regulates solicitation by religious organizations while exempting from the licensing requirements an array of other groups, including farmers, gardeners, lawn-care service providers, and some political advocates. Further, it accords city officials nearly unfettered discretion to decide whether and when to deny licenses, giving officials free rein to discriminate against speech and causes with which they disagree.

The ACLU represented the Mission in 2000 in successfully challenging a similar overly restrictive solicitation law enacted by the City of Medina in King County. In that case, the city repealed licensing and background check provisions after the US District Court in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the law.

Numerous court rulings have upheld the right of citizens to engage in religious and charitable solicitation without unreasonable restrictions. As the US Supreme Court found (in Watchtower v. Stratton, 2002), “It is offensive—not only to the values protected by the First Amendment, but to the very notion of a free society—that... a citizen must first inform the government of her desire to speak to her neighbors and then obtain a permit to do so.”

Handling the case are ACLU-WA cooperating attorneys Kevin Hamilton, William Stafford, and Lisa Marshall Manheim of Perkins Coie LLP, along with staff attorney Harry Williams.•