Philly.com – Religious groups filed a federal lawsuit against the Philadelphia’s ban on feeding the homeless in the city’s public parks, charging it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the activist law firm of Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg, LLP filed the suit on the behalf of Chosen 300 Ministries, the Welcome Church, the King’s Jubilee, and Philly Restart, which have operated food-sharing programs for the homeless in the parks along Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and other groups. The lawsuit argues the ban, which went into effect Friday, was made to protect the city’s tourist image, especially near the news opened Barnes Foundation museum, and not to protect the health of the homeless, as officials have maintained. It alleges that the ban violates both the free exercise of religion clause and the free speech clause of the First Amendment as well as Pennsylvania’s Religious Freedom Protection Act, the ACLU said in a statement.
Hey, churchy, you wanna feed the homeless so bad? Why don’t you take them into your home and feed them the legal way then, huh? Oh — what’s that? You’re afraid of bringing a dozen shifty urine-marinated wanderers into your home so instead you’ll just lawyer up and sue the city? Yeah, I’m sure that’s EXACTLY what Jesus would’ve done.
Again, they’re not banning feeding the homeless, they’re just banning feeding the homeless in public. Kind of like how I and millions of others can’t smoke indoors in most cities in this country now. You’re just gonna have to deal with it like we did. We smoke outdoors, you pass out Wawa Shorti hoagies indoors
June 6, 2012 at 11:48 pm |
If they wanna feed them so badly take all the $ they are using to sue the city and start a frigging soup kitchen.
Oh, wait, that takes commitment, long term volunteers and effort beyond whining and signing.
Plus, they might have to spend more than 2 seconds with a homeless person!