Homophobic Billboard Suit Thrown Out

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon05/11/111705billboards.htm

A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a Staten Island clergyman who claimed his civil rights were violated when two billboards he ordered denouncing homosexuality were ordered covered up.

It was the second time that the Rev. Kristopher Okwedy has had his case dismissed. After Judge Nina Gershon originally threw out the case in 2003, Okwedy went to a state Appeals Court which ordered the case revisited.

This week Gershon again dismissed the case.

Okwedy was attempting to sue former Borough President Guy V. Molinari and PNE Media of violating his First Amendment rights when Molinair ordered the removal of two billboards.

[xchrom]

1. awww -- poor thing.

not.

[Deep13]

2. "Judge Nina Gershon": she was great in Prey for Rock and Roll.

Bound was great too. So she is a judge now. Good for her.x(

[Orrex]

4. Self delete

[havocmom]

3. by his reckoning, if I put up a billboard denouncing bigoted clerics

and they got covered up, I am justified in suing for violations of my rights? Hot diggety damn! Gotta raise some funds for big ol signs.

[BR_Parkway]

6. right next to the church - Churches are twisting the true word of God

to fill there pockets! Stop the Pharisees

[tx_dem41]

5. I would be interested in exactly what the billboards said or showed...

unfortunately the story doesn't say.

[Mairead]

7. If Molinari ordered the removal/coverup, then the guy has a case

Repulsive tho his message might be, that's clearly a First Amendment violation! I can hardly imagine anything more obviously a violation. Molinari was using his power as borough prez to suppress this nitwit's speech.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mairead]

9. I think you need to read the Bill Of Rights more closely.

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."
--Mr Justice Brandeis, 1927, Whitney v. California

[TaleWgnDg]

10. Uuuummmmm, huh?

.
Too bad that this news publication didn't go into more detail. My first reaction (without all the facts and circumstances) is that this is a violation of that idiot's first amendment free speech . . . i.e., this is protected speech, unless -- broadly speaking -- it is defamatory and/or will cause imminent threat(s) to the physical well-being of the target(s).

But, then again, there may be terms and conditions in the contract that allow the billboard owner to remove the contents otherwise.

.

[TaleWgnDg]

11. dwickham, your source publication . . . 365gay.com seems

not to be, overall, the best of news sources. I've noted this in the past several months. Is there another, more reliable, gay news source that you could use?

[dsc]

12. I agree this source doesn't do the greatest job

but sadly I think they are close to unique in being a daily report on gay issues.

[sakabatou]

13. WAH WAH WAH!

I want me billboawd but mean ol nasty judgie won't gib me any! WAH!