"Homosexuality Is A Sin" banner

[Volokh, Eugene]

        An interesting complement case to the prosecution of the
pro-Osama-bin-Laden speaker in Manhattan.  Any thoughts?  From Kevin Murphy,
Capital Times (Madison, Wisc.), Mar. 20, 2002, at 3A:

"Monroe Christian activist Ralph Ovadal is challenging the town of Madison's
disorderly conduct ordinance claiming it infringes on his right of free
speech, according to a lawsuit filed last week in federal court.

"Two of Ovadal's associates, Michael Font and Howard Neill, were arrested in
January when they displayed from a Beltline pedestrian overpass a
20-foot-long banner proclaiming 'homosexuality is a sin.'

"An unidentified man walked to Font and Neill, said the banner offended him
and tried to remove it, said Michael DePrimo, an attorney for Tupelo,
Miss.-based American Family Association Center for Law and Policy, which
represents Ovadal.  Font and Neill called police and claimed the man
demanding their banner was assaulting them, DePrimo said.  However, the
responding officer told them the sign was creating a disturbance and they
could either remove it or be arrested, DePrimo said.

"The men said it was their First Amendment right to display the banner but
they were handcuffed and arrested for disorderly conduct, he said. . . ."

        Eugene
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