Freedom of religion update: Denial of Rights overturned

ADF: One man is not a parade; Ga. town acted illegally in criminal case against resident

When a 67-year-old Georgia man was arrested, held in jail for two days and convicted by a judge without being given access to a lawyer for passing out Gospel tracts on a public street, the Alliance Defense Fund jumped into action.

First the legal team submitted a request to overturn the man's conviction, and a Georgia Superior Court agreed. Now the same team has brought a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Fredric Baumann again the town of Cumming, Ga., and its police chief, Mike Eason, for the arrest.

Says a senior legal counsel for the ADF, "Christians have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else in America and cannot be treated as second-class citizens. The government should not force them to get special permission before practicing their constitutional right to free speech."  For the rest of the story: ADF: One man is not a parade; Ga. town acted illegally in criminal case against resident