I’m grateful to live in a country founded on a Constitution that protects the fundamental freedoms of conscience and expression for all Americans. I admit, though, that until recently, I had never fully realized how important access to federal court is to retaining these freedoms.
I’m a Christian and a man of deep faith. The gospel message turned my life around, and I can’t help but share the good news with anyone willing to listen. This compulsion leads me to the public square, where people are located, so I can have civil conversations, answer questions, and offer solutions from scripture. I love to tell people about Jesus, and I did so faithfully — until one day the city of Brandon in my home state of Mississippi made evangelism a crime.
I was at a public park in Brandon, near an amphitheater where people were gathering for an event, hoping to share the good news with them, when local police told me that a city ordinance kept me from reaching people with my message. They said the law considers my evangelism a “protest” that can only be uttered in a small, remote spot 100 yards away from where people were walking. Only there, in that marked off “protest” zone, could I share my faith. No one could receive my literature from there, hear my preaching from there, or see my signs from there.
Wanting to do some good, I walked back to a location where I could be closer to the people. But because I refused to confine myself to the faraway small square, I was promptly handcuffed, arrested, and taken away in a police car.
I pled “no contest” and paid the $304 fine, yet I couldn’t shake an unsettling feeling that Brandon had stripped me of my First Amendment rights. It would have been easier to pay the fine and move on, but none of it sat well with me. I wanted to do something about it. I couldn’t let Brandon get in the way of what God is calling me to do.
I knew I had to go to court and felt confident that I would win my rights back in that venue. After all, the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and it takes priority over any conflicting local ordinances.
But that is where my rights were denied a second time. Relying on a case called Heck v. Humphery, the court refused even to consider my First Amendment claim, holding that I had no right to have my case heard because the state criminal court entered a guilty verdict after I pleaded no contest. I was shocked. How can that be? I wasn’t trying to reverse the guilty verdict. I wanted to go back to the park and share my faith.
I’m nothing if not persistent, so I refused to give up. How far can the suppression of cherished freedoms go if I never have the opportunity to challenge local ordinances that undercut the Constitution? What future will my children, and the generations after them, have if layers upon layers of laws continue to usurp the founding principles that set us apart as a free country? So yes, it’s worth the fight, fighting over freedoms that are far more valuable than the $304 fine.
IN FOCUS: FROM ‘FAMILY FIRST’ TO ‘ME FIRST’: HOW AMERICAN VALUES COLLAPSED — AND HOW TO RESTORE THEM
Following a long, winding journey through the court system, my case is now before the Supreme Court. The justices will decide if Americans like me can challenge local ordinances that bar us from exercising our religious freedoms. My desire to share my faith was not squelched when I was hauled away in handcuffs. Unless the Supreme Court corrects this wrong-headed notion, I will never be free to engage in religious expression in the public square.
I’m very hopeful the Supreme Court will see this injustice for what it is and let me have my day in court. This isn’t just my fight. Any American who has suffered a constitutional violation deserves vindication and a remedy in federal court.
Gabe Olivier resides in Brandon, Mississippi. His case, Olivier v. City of Brandon, will be heard by the Supreme Court on Dec. 3.
