COURT VICTORY: Preacher No Longer Silenced

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]This is our faith under fire week, and we said that because the ACLJ's work, it feels like more than ever, but it's been the last year even. It feels like so many of these cases have come about, whether that's street preachers or pro-life pregnancy centers or protesters. Things that we were talking about in the '80s and '90s are now just as prevalent today. And maybe it's just cuz time helps people forget what the rules are.

[00:00:23]But here's where we are. And there was actually a victory.

[00:00:26]>> We were prepared to play today already. We were looking forward to talking about this because it's a fight that is ongoing.

[00:00:33]Uh but this is a uh an client of the ACLJ's, Jason Cantrell, who has been preaching outside of abortion clinics in Georgia and and doing everything that he is told he's supposed to of getting a permit to use amp- amplification, to use a microphone.

[00:00:51]And the the city had an unconstitutional provision that said if anyone complains, your permit is null and void.

[00:01:01]It's called a heckler's veto. It's unconstitutional. And so, someone complained.

[00:01:07]It was null and void, and law enforcement came to deal with it. Let's play this video, and then we'll explain the victory afterwards. Uh go ahead and roll it.

[00:01:17]>> [music] >> Jason, he is a passionate evangelist who works near an abortion clinic.

[00:01:27]>> When the moms are coming in the driveway right here, we try to hand them information, which is a gospel tract and pregnancy info.

[00:01:35]So, it has information for our pregnancy center where they can go and get free ultrasound, free pregnancy care.

[00:01:40]Everything's free.

[00:01:42]>> This is core to what the First Amendment is designed to protect, both [music] his religious practice and his free speech.

[00:01:48]He wants to get out there and change hearts and minds. Our pregnancy center in Atlanta, it actually helps the moms for 2 years. For 2 years, they can get free diapers, [music] wipes, and clothes. So, we are offering the tangible help, but we also want to offer them the spiritual help and through sharing the gospel with them. Now, the city of Forest Park has instituted a permitting scheme. [music] That's completely fine. They're allowed to do that. And Jason, in an effort to follow the law, got one of those permits. And those permits originally said he was allowed to use amplification at a particular place and at a particular time. And he [music] always dutifully obeyed those limitations on his permit.

[00:02:25]>> We were just out here preaching one day >> [music] >> like we like I've been doing for years, and all of a sudden um an officer came out and said, "We got a complaint. We need you to turn it down." And I said, "Well, multiple supervisors have been out here before, and they said my volume's fine."

[00:02:39]>> The city of Forest Park, Georgia, essentially put a heckler's veto into the permit. Said if anyone complains about this permit, it's revoked. Well, of course the abortion [music] clinic complained. They tried to hold him criminally liable. And the ACLJ stepped in right away to make sure that that didn't [music] happen.

[00:02:56]>> They don't measure the sound out here.

[00:02:57]They don't use decibel readers. They don't measure the sound. None of that.

[00:03:00]It's just all revolves around a complaint.

[00:03:02]>> It cannot be the case that [music] speech which offends can be regulated and silenced more so than [music] speech that is popular.

[00:03:12]>> For 2 months, I had my sound permit revoked. I wasn't able [music] to be heard out here. And as we know, when we went to court just recently, the charges were dismissed. So, I feel like my [music] free speech was violated.

[00:03:24]>> But the city still insisted on putting this illegal and unconstitutional [music] restriction on his sound permits. So, we are taking this to a federal lawsuit. We are [music] going to vindicate Jason's rights in federal court. We're going to do whatever it takes.

[00:03:39]>> The process is the punishment. You know, we're going to charge you. We're going to cite you. We're going to drag you into court. And then, hey, we'll just dismiss the charges. And you know, we just caused people a lot of time and a lot of money. He has the right to speak out against abortion, and the ACLJ [music] is going to stand with him to make sure that that message gets out.

[00:03:55]>> Those of us who are street preachers, we want to come out and preach the gospel, preach the word of God, and we want to see God convict their hearts and change their hearts, change their lives. And we see children saved.

[00:04:06]You know, I see babies saved almost every week. As Christians, we've got to do what we're called to do. We're in a spiritual battle, and we need to be out here preaching the gospel and being a voice for the voiceless.

[00:04:19]So, as we see there that not only did we have a victory of getting the charges dropped against him, which is ridiculous. He did everything he was supposed to. Someone complained. And then he gets charges against him.

[00:04:30]However, now we have the city of Forest Park has agreed by formal stipulation filed in federal court that he will get a new permit with no complaint restriction whatsoever, Logan.

[00:04:42]Yeah, that's right. And that's what the ACLJ fights for each and every day. Our team is actively involved. Again, you may see this and go, "This is in Forest Park. This is in Georgia. What does it matter to me?" Because even these wins, which may in theory seem little, those little wins all compile. So, when people like you want to do something similar, we have precedent we can stand on and say, "Listen, not only is this a settled settled rule of court, but look, here's where we've challenged this before. You don't want to go down this route."

[00:05:09]Sometimes, these can all be handled with just a letter saying, "Here's what the ACLJ is doing. Here's what we've done.

[00:05:14]And here's what we're going to do if you don't." And you know what? That's often enough. Sometimes it's not though, and you got to go to court, which, you know, for our team, sometimes the most fun part.

[00:05:23]You know, I always want to you know, sometimes a letter goes through, and you're like, "Oh, man, we wanted to take it to court." But you know what? The ACLJ has been so at this for so many years, 40 years almost, that it's not uncommon that we can handle things very quickly and very aggressively. That's right. And we're also not done. We want an even further victory here where we push for a final permanent judgment that strikes down the complaint restriction for everyone, not just Jason.