Catholic Media Group [Church Militant] Can Move Ahead with Free Speech and Assembly Claims

Religion Clause ^ | 4/4/23 | Howard Friedman

[marshmallow]

In St. Michael's Media, Inc. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, (D MD, March 31, 2023), a Maryland federal district court in an 80-page opinion allowed a conservative media organization that often criticizes the current leadership of the Catholic Church to move ahead with free speech and freedom of assembly claims against the city of Baltimore and the management of a city-owned concert venue. The claims grew out of the cancellation of a contract for plaintiff to hold a conference and prayer rally to coincide with the Fall General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The court said in part:

St. Michael’s sufficiently alleges viewpoint-based discrimination.... St. Michael’s alleges that defendants cancelled the rally “specifically because they disapproved of the content and viewpoint of the speech that was expected to occur at the rally.”... St. Michael’s asserts that, when Voris spoke with Shea regarding the cancellation, “Shea told Mr. Voris that his office had received reports that St. Michael’s had ‘ties to the January 6 [2021] riot’ at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.”.... As I acknowledged in granting the preliminary injunction ..., “invocation of the events of January 6, 2021, as horrifying as they were, cannot, without more, serve as a license for the City to dispense with its obligations under the First Amendment.”

The court however dismissed plaintiff's free exercise claim, saying in part:

[T]he Second Amended Complaint “does not raise any plausible suspicion”—even a slight suspicion—that plaintiff’s religious exercise was the “object” of the City’s decision to cancel the rally.