The DMV Is Oppressing Religious Liberty!

Remember the Christianist screams about religious liberty when Christmas carolers were asked to stop annoying the captive audience at a post office? How about if the cops tell you to stop reciting from the Bible to a captive audience at the DMV? The AFA is outraged, I tells ya.

The two men were arrested for reading from the Bible to roughly 50 individuals waiting in line outside the DMV. A security guard told Mackey to stop, and when Mackey refused, a police officer was called and Mackey was arrested. Coronado and another church elder then asked the police officer what law Mackey broke, but instead of an answer, they were arrested as well. Lenny Esposito, president of Come Reason Ministries, argues that there was no legitimate cause for the arrest. Lenny Esposito "From a legal perspective, I think the officer mishandled the situation, and I don't know that he had grounds for arresting these individuals," he says. Officials say Coronado and Mackey could not preach on state property without a permit. But attorneys for the two men say the First Amendment rights of their clients were violated.

The men were charged with one misdemeanor count of creating a disturbance.