home > newsroom U.S. Supreme Court Will Not Hear Mormon Church Appeal Tenth Circuit Ruling Remains: Main Street Plaza Easement is a Public Forum and Church’s Restrictions on Speech Are Unconstitutional FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 23, 2003 SALT LAKE CITY--The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision upholding full First Amendment rights, including free speech, on the controversial Main Street Plaza, Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1999 Salt Lake City sold a block of Main Street to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints but retained an easement for public access and passage. The Church placed restrictions on speech and behavior. The federal District Court in Utah had ruled in favor of the restrictions, calling the plaza “an ecclesiastical park.” On appeal, the Tenth Circuit ruled that the pedestrian easement reserved to the City is a traditional public forum to which the free speech clause of the First Amendment applies, and therefore the LDS Church’s restrictions on expressive conduct violated the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution. Today the Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari filed by the Church. The Church claimed that the Tenth Circuit decision was in conflict with a decision of the Second Circuit regarding the Lincoln Center Plaza in New York City. Utah’s Attorney General and other parties filed “Friend of the Court” briefs arguing that the Tenth Circuit’s decision unduly impeded the ability of government entities to sell public land. American Civil Liberties Union attorneys Mark Lopez and Stephen Clark filed a responding brief on behalf of the First Unitarian Church reiterating First Amendment concerns and arguing that there was no conflict with the Second Circuit’s decision, merely a different outcome due to the application of settled law to the unique property in each case, and that the Tenth Circuit decision does not imperil the rights of property owners or interfere with municipal government but merely requires that they comply with the Constitution. In May of 1999, Stephen Clark, then legal director for the ACLU of Utah, wrote a letter to Salt Lake City suggesting that the restrictions on expressive behavior contained within the Special Warranty Deed were unconstitutional and should be addressed by the City. The City declined to address the problem. The ACLU brought an action against the City to remedy constitutional violations and the LDS Church intervened in the lawsuit. While the case was pending and the property was patrolled by the Church, ministers from other religions were arrested while peacefully passing out pamphlets. The denial of cert by the U.S Supreme court today puts to rest legal and constitutional questions raised by the ACLU four years ago and ensures freedom of speech for all, regardless of their viewpoint, on this public portion of this central block of downtown Salt Lake City, a traditional public forum. Although the city currently enjoys the benefits of public passage and access and attendant free expression, the City Council was unwilling to shoulder the attendant burden of regulation and recently voted to vacate the easement. This raises many new and complex legal and public issues dealing with government accommodation of private discrimination and separation of church and state. --end--

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