Posted on 05/31/2017 6:48:07 PM PDT by markomalley
A farmers market and Facebook posts have opened a new front in courtroom battles over religious freedom.
It started when Steve Tennes, who owns a 120-acre farm in Charlotte, Michigan, expressed his traditional view about marriage on the farm’s Facebook page.
This drew a warning from an official more than 20 miles away in East Lansing, Michigan, that if Tennes tried to sell his fruit at the city’s farmers market, it could incite protests.
No one showed up to protest that August day last summer, though, and Tennes continued selling organic apples, peaches, cherries, and pumpkins at the seasonal market until October, as he had done the six previous years.
So Tennes and his wife sued the city for religious discrimination.
As a Marine veteran who is married to an Army veteran, Tennes told The Daily Signal, this was consistent with his philosophy of defending freedom:
My wife Bridget and I volunteered to serve our country in the military to protect freedom, and that is why we feel we have to fight for freedom now, whether it’s Muslims’, Jews’, or Christians’ right to believe and live out those beliefs.
The government shouldn’t be treating some people worse than others because they have different thoughts and ideas.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal aid organization, is representing the Tenneses.
Neither East Lansing’s public information office nor the city manager’s office responded Wednesday to phone calls about the case from The Daily Signal.
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows told the Lansing State Journal that the city’s decision to exclude Country Mill—also known as Country Mill Orchard—from the farmers market had nothing to do with religious beliefs, but with the farm’s “business decision” not to host same-sex weddings.
“This is about them operating a business that discriminates against LGBT individuals, and that’s a whole different issue,” Meadows said.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, says of Steve and Bridget Tennes’ perspective, in part:
Plaintiffs support the rights of citizens and other businesses to express their views about marriage. Plaintiffs simply seek to enjoy the same freedom.
Yet, East Lansing’s policy strips plaintiffs of their constitutional freedoms, including free speech and the free exercise of religion, by punishing plaintiffs’ viewpoint on marriage, going so far as to prohibit Country Mill from continuing its long history of participating in the farmers market because plaintiffs publicly stated their sincerely held religious view that marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
The suit also says the farm “has employed people from a wide variety of racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds, including members of the LGBT community.
Country Mill hosts a corn maze, birthday parties, weddings, and other events.
In 2014, two lesbians sought to be married in a wedding ceremony at Country Mill, but Tennes turned them down.
This occurred before the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage across the country.
According to his legal complaint, Tennes had a “civil” discussion with the women, and said his venue didn’t host same-sex weddings because of his religious beliefs. But he referred the women to an orchard that held same-sex weddings.
In 2015, the two women were married at another orchard. On Aug. 22, 2016, one of them wrote a Facebook post discouraging consumers from doing business with Country Mill.
In response, Tennes initially said the farm would cease holding any weddings, writing on Facebook:
After this post, the East Lansing official asked Tennes not to sell produce at the market, saying he feared protests.
Tennes did anyway, and no protest occurred, according to the lawsuit.
In December, Tennes announced on Facebook that Country Mill would resume holding weddings:
This past fall our family farm stopped booking future wedding ceremonies at our orchard until we could devote the appropriate time to review our policies and how we respectfully communicate and express our beliefs. The Country Mill engages in expressing its purpose and beliefs through the operation of its business and it intentionally communicates messages that promote its owners’ beliefs and declines to communicate messages that violate those beliefs.
The Country Mill family and its staff have and will continue to participate in hosting the ceremonies held at our orchard. It remains our deeply held religious belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and Country Mill has the First Amendment right to express and act upon its beliefs. For this reason, Country Mill reserves the right to deny a request for services that would require it to communicate, engage in, or host expression that violates the owners’ sincerely held religious beliefs and conscience.
Furthermore, it remains our religious belief that all people should be treated with respect and dignity regardless of their beliefs or background. We appreciate the tolerance offered to us specifically regarding our participation in hosting wedding ceremonies at our family farm.
East Lansing city officials determined that these public statements violated the city’s 1972 human relations ordinance prohibiting discrimination. That law was the first in the state to recognize sexual orientation as a protected class from discrimination.
But this brought up a jurisdictional issue on top of First Amendment concerns, the farmer’s lawsuit says.
East Lansing, the complaint says, “has no authority to enforce its ordinance based on Tennes’ religious beliefs and their impact on how he operates Country Mill.” The farm, it says, is 22 miles outside the city.
The lawsuit also notes that the city has not taken action against a vendor that promoted same-sex marriage.
In March, East Lansing sent Tennes a letter denying Country Mill’s application to be a vendor at the 2017 farmers market:
It was brought to our attention that the Country Mill’s general business practices do not comply with East Lansing’s civil rights ordinances and public policy against discrimination as set forth in Chapter 22 of the City Code and outlined in the 2017 market vendor guidelines.
“As such,” the letter reads, “Country Mill’s presence as a vendor is prohibited.”
May society’s vindictive faggies soon learn that they are regarded as an obnoxious minority by the other 98%.
Progressivism is like cancer. It starts out small, grows and grows into a big tumor. It then send out malignant cells that start new little tumors, like these town councils, school boards, colleges that grow into big tumors and start the cycle over again until the host succumbs.
At least one of those characters is androgynous.
The city’s action is nothing more than small-mindec, mean-spirited bigotry and hate.
They are, ADF is a good legal group.
Gotta be the blue shirt....
The problem is that the First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law...” which unfortunately doesn’t seem to address state and local laws. And ambiguity in a contract always benefits the party that did not draft it. In this case, the socialist left. There are not many federal laws that I can think of except the Johnson Amendment that infringe on the 1st Amendment, but there are plenty of state and local ones.
If only it had been written, “No law shall be made at any level of government...”
Time to end state-sanctioned marriage.
It seems to me the right doesn’t challenge those laws often enough.
Give it another three for four years, and the SCOTUS will be ready to receive them.
We can start taking it to the Left then, all the way up and down the government.
Yeah, after a little longer scrutiny, I agree.
“I wonder which of these females it was who took offense...”
Probably the ones on each end.
Politically Correct is BS. What happened to freedom of speech and property rights.
The city has no business getting involved in this at all. If some ugly leftist gay group wants to make a stink (nothing unusual there) then fine but this city is way out of line and should be sued for a very high sum of money.
Women, especially Lesbians unconsciously want men to dominate.
If it can’t be had here, we’ll import Sharia law, where real men take charge.
“Down with the old patriarchy, which is why we defend and support the new patriarchy”.
Which is why women were not allowed to vote , in the first place.
We’ve painted ourselves into a corner.
So, welcome Sharia law.
At least you’ll be able to practice polygamy, and beat your wives into submission.
Look at the bright side,
To the liberal, who is shocked, just shocked, that anyone might not support homosexual marriage, the punishment is to be deprived of earning a livelihood. That’s the mindset behind such policies as this one.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I really go by the theory that the state has no business in issuing marriage licenses to ANYONE.
Just another means of control.
Funny how the LIBS want to shove all this made up crap down our throats and expect to follow every whim that comes down the pike.
YET they do not want to allow law abiding citizens to exercise their right to concealed carry.
Granted the words may not be spoken out and laid out so the average idiot can understand them BUT the US Constitution gives ME a clearer right to carry than it does for Jim & Tim to marry or Jeffrey use the girls.
The city manager and the PIO are city employees reporting to the mayor and council. They’re not going to buck what they’re being told to do by the elected officials.
But his farm isn’t. What if the city decides to require afternoon prayers? Are they going to arrest every non-resident visitor who doesn’t pray in the afternoon at home?
Did you read the article?
Article states....”This drew a warning from ‘AN’ Official more than 20 miles away in East Lansing, Michigan.....
Gays and Lesbians are always looking to use ANY business to keep their agenda in the news....they deliberately make issues on purpose where there are none, thus opening their can of worms to spill all over the place.
Of course. The farm is 22 miles outside of the city.
I would boycott the farmer’s market if I lived in the area. Go directly to the farmers if the city is going to ban decent people.
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