SALT LAKE CITY - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a
federal lawsuit Thursday against the Mormon church's control of a downtown
block.
The lawsuit, filed by both the national and Utah ACLU, names Salt Lake City
Mayor Rocky Anderson and the city. It asks the court to return control of the
block to the city, which last week signed it over to The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints.
The church is not named as a defendant.
Anderson was not immediately available for comment, nor were church spokesmen.
In a prepared statement, Utah ACLU Director Dani Eyer accused the city of
acquiescing to the demands of the church when it traded away the easement
through the downtown block of Main Street rather than maintain it as a public
space.
Mark Lopez, an ACLU national staff attorney objected to what he called
"governmental favoritism of one religion over all other religious
messages."
"When government shows a preference for one religion it sends a chilling
message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, and not full members of the
community," he said in the written statement.
On July 28, the city and the church closed a deal that traded two acres of
church-owned land and $388,000 in church funds for the disputed Main Street
easement.
A local philanthropist and a group dedicated to easing religious conflict in
Utah promised the rest of the $5 million that would go to building a community
center in the neighborhood. That promise was an integral part of the complex
exchange, which Eyer said the federal court would scrutinize.
"We're asking the court to look at the whole transaction," Eyer said
Thursday. "Our argument is that they never should have made the decision
to give up the downtown easement."
The suit's plaintiffs are the Utah Gospel Mission, the First Unitarian Church
of Salt Lake City, a pro-nuclear disarmament group, the Utah chapter of the
National Organization for Women and two individuals.
The plaza dispute began in April 1999, when the church paid the city $8.1
million for one block of Main Street adjacent to the church's temple. The
block, which is now a landscaped pedestrian plaza, formerly was a main traffic
artery into and out of the city's downtown.
The church agreed to the city's demand for a sidewalk easement through the
block, but demanded in turn that the church be allowed to restrict smoking,
sunbathing, bicycling, "obscene" or "vulgar" speech, dress
or conduct on the plaza.
The Utah ACLU sued, arguing the restrictions were unconstitutional.
On Oct. 9, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the ACLU.
The city, not the church, was responsible for maintaining order on the 660-foot
easement through the plaza, and constitutional rights to free speech applied on
the easement, the court ruled.
The decision also said that one solution would be to sell the easement, but
didn't say how that might be done constitutionally.
City and church leaders hoped the land swap would put an end to the controversy
over the church-city deal made under former Mayor Deedee Corradini.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined last month to review the decision.