Salt Lake City asked U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball to
dismiss an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, which claims that the city
violated the First Amendment when it gave control of the Main Street Plaza to
the LDS Church.
The city's response, filed Thursday, didn't answer the
group's specific allegations. Instead, it was more like a lesson to the ACLU on
how to write legal briefs, suggesting the ACLU rewrite its complaint so that
the city can adequately respond.
Statements in the ACLU's 51-page complaint were confusing,
and contained rumors and speculation, the city said. The complaint "is not
short, plain, simple, concise or direct. Rather, it is long, cumbersome,
complex, prolix and convoluted," the city wrote.
The ACLU declined to comment. It filed a lawsuit earlier
this month on behalf of Utah Gospel Mission, First Unitarian Church of Salt
Lake City, Shundahai Network, Utah National Organization for Women and Lee J.
Siegel.
The suit alleges that when the city sold its right of way
through the Main Street Plaza, it violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment
right to express themselves as well as the ban on endorsement of religion found
in the U.S. and Utah constitutions.
Chief Deputy City Attorney Steven Allred wrote that the
ACLU's "sea of verbiage" defies "meaningful response," and
he suggests it was written for the media. "Issues of constitutional
magnitude . . . deserve to be resolved with the formality and dignity
contemplated" by rules of civil procedure, he wrote.
The ACLU's complaint is unusual, according to attorneys who
have read it.
It claims the LDS Church used religious code to let people
know that God, through LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, endorsed the
church's demand for the plaza easement.
It asserts Mayor Rocky Anderson was trying to "shore up
his flagging support" on the west side of the city by exchanging the
easement for land and money for a community center in Glendale.
And it mentions that many people believe the church controls
the government.
Salt Lake City also asked Kimball to dismiss Anderson as a
defendant because the suit was filed while Anderson was acting in his official
capacity as mayor.