FARMINGTON HILLS, MI — After receiving a
letter from Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, the United States Postal Service sent a
response letter Monday stating that it is no longer enforcing a policy that was used to ban a Christian man from peacefully handing out religious tracts to receptive passersby outside a Michigan post office. A postal worker told Michael Shanton on the sidewalk in front of the post office that he would be arrested if he did not leave the area. ADF attorneys contended in the letter that the regulation prohibiting him from distributing religious literature was too broadly applied, and therefore violated his right to free speech protected by the First Amendment.
“Christians shouldn’t be threatened with arrest and banned from a traditional public forum for peacefully sharing their beliefs,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. “We are pleased that the USPS has acknowledged Mr. Shanton’s constitutional right to hand out tracts outside the post office. Such an act is not a crime, and the government has no right to harass and threaten citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights in public.”
For approximately eight weeks in 2009, Shanton distributed religious tracts during his lunch break on a sidewalk outside the Farmington Hills Post Office. He would peacefully sit on a bench near the post office entrance and ask passersby if they would like a religious tract—never pressing them or entering the facility. In September, a postal worker left the post office and approached Shanton, ordering him to leave or be arrested, stating that literature distribution was not allowed anywhere on federal property. Shanton ceased distributing literature after this incident.
When Shanton attempted to contact the Farmington Hills Postmaster, he was told that he could not distribute literature in front of the post office because it violated a section of the “Postal Operations Manual.” According to the local postal officials, this section prohibited individuals from handing out a “pamphlet or flyer” that is not an official government document.
On behalf of Shanton, ADF attorneys sent a letter to USPS officials, stating that such a policy can only be “narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest.” The letter also quoted a federal court precedent proclaiming that a regulation may not “burden substantially more speech than is necessary to further the government’s legitimate interests.” The letter went on to assert that the regulation was problematic because “the government has completely banned all literature distribution in a traditional public forum.” In a response letter, an attorney for the USPS notified ADF attorneys that Shanton will no longer be kept from distributing literature outside the Farmington Hills Post Office.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
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