2 sue to preach at holiday light display in Duluth

Two evangelical Christians have gone to court to get Christ back into the Christmas festival on the Duluth lakefront.

Peter Scott, a lay preacher from Hibbing, says he was forbidden from preaching to passersby during the "Bentleyville Tour of Lights" display last year after some event organizers told them that "people don't want to hear religious crap." The other, Steve Jankowski, a Duluth minister, said he was warned he could be arrested for trespassing if he resists a request by event organizers to leave.

The two are seeking a restraining order against the city of Duluth to block police from interfering with their constitutional rights. The "Bentleyville Tour of Lights," purported to be the largest holiday lights display in the Midwest, opened Saturday in the city's Bayfront Festival Park and runs through Dec. 26.

Lawyers in the Tennessee office of the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization that advocates for religious liberty, filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Minnesota on behalf of Jankowski and Scott. The lawsuit says the men preach in public because they believe they have a religious duty to do so. They do not solicit money, harass passersby or block their travel, it says.

The Tour of Lights is sponsored by a private, tax-exempt organization. According to the group's website, it began in 2001 when Nathan Bentley decorated his house in Esko, Minn., then migrated to Cloquet when his family moved there in 2004. It grew more complex by the year and became a popular local attraction featuring live entertainment, fire pits, popcorn and cookie "huts," and, of course, Santa Claus.

At the invitation of Duluth Mayor Don Ness, the event moved to Bayfront Park in 2009 and attracted more than 150,000 visitors in six weeks, the organization says. The event is free to the public "for all to enjoy" -- but not, apparently, to preach at.

'Freedom from religion'

After Nilsson left, however, Scott and Winandy started up again, the suit says, and several representatives of Tour of Lights confronted them. The suit says one asked Scott, "Do you realize that freedom of religion is also freedom from religion and you're impinging on my rights?"

Scott responded that the First Amendment protected his religious expression and began to talk about his faith, the suit says. "In response to Scott's message, one official threatened: 'If you don't back down, we will help you meet him [Jesus] quicker.'"

The suit says one Tour of Lights representative grabbed a video camera from Winandy, so Scott called police.

Ken Butler, attorney for the Tour of Lights organization, declined to comment on the allegations.

Jankowski, who had been preaching in the park earlier, got an e-mail Nov. 29, 2010, from a deputy city attorney, stating that the Tour of Lights has a contract granting it exclusive rights to the Bayfront area.

Jankowski later got a copy of the group's contract, which states that the park "shall be open to the public" during the event. The city also provides certain services for the event, including marketing and fundraising assistance and a staff liaison, the suit says.

A call to Lutterman Tuesday was referred to City Attorney Gunnar Johnson, who declined to comment, saying the city has not yet been served with the lawsuit. He declined an offer to be sent a copy.

City says the event is private

Mayor Don Ness called the Tour of Lights "a private event."

"There's a contract for the private organization to use the park. It is open to the public -- by invitation of the party that's organizing it."

Scott's lawyers responded in July that he was not asking Duluth to force any private entity to do anything. He simply wanted assurances that the city wouldn't "enforce the rules of the private organization," the suit says. The city did not respond to that letter.

Scott and Jankowski allege that the city has violated their free speech and due process rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution. They want Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis to forbid the city from restraining their rights during the Tour of Lights festival. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.

The nonprofit that puts on the festival was not named as a defendant.

"Our concern is with the city because it's the city that has the power to kick us out of the park," said Jonathan Scruggs, a staff attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund.

"We've litigated similar cases along these lines elsewhere," he said. "A private individual technically can't violate your First Amendment Rights."