Plaza dispute returns to court
Property exchange unconstitutional, ACLU is contending
Still others passed through the plaza, though, for entirely different reasons. A jogger maneuvered past the large family groups, obviously using the flower-filled area as a mere thoroughfare. A young couple did the same, simply taking the shortest route from their Salt Lake apartment to a nearby mall.
Those gathered downtown Sunday may not know it, but the status of Main Street Plaza is still a hotly contested issue. Eight years after Salt Lake City sold the block to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, constitutional challenges to the $8.1 million deal remain.
The case will return to a Denver courtroom Wednesday morning for arguments before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union will try to convince the court that a Utah federal judge erred when he OK'd an arrangement in which Salt Lake City ceded its public easement on Main Street Plaza in exchange for 2.1 acres of land on the city's west side formerly owned by the LDS Church. The settlement also arranged for private donors to contribute some $5 million in cash to develop the Unity Center, a west-side community center.
The June 2003 deal was an attempt to resolve an earlier 10th Circuit ruling that as long as the city maintained the easement it must allow full expressive activities on the land as required by the First Amendment. The decision was a legal win for the ACLU, which filed its first suit over the Main Street Plaza in November 1999 after the church imposed significant restrictions on speech and behavior for plaza guests.
The organization's second lawsuit, filed in August 2003, alleges that the city, namely Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, hid behind the deal while kowtowing to the wishes of the LDS Church to turn over the formerly public easement.
Not only did the arrangement fail to solve the issue raised in the first Main Street Plaza case, "it raises separate free speech and Establishment Clause violations that focus on the city's willingness to carve up Main Street in order to ensure that the church does not have to share its space with individuals expressing other viewpoints," according to the ACLU's appellate brief.
ACLU attorney Mark Lopez said he will encourage the appeals court to look closely at the deal and the city's motivation for entering into it.
"The government's whole position is they did exactly what the 10th Circuit told them to do to cure the constitutional problem here. Our position is that they didn't," he said."Instead of the city completely relinquishing its interest in the property, it entered into a modified or revised arrangement that continues the status quo, or that perpetuates the situation that existed in Main Street I.
Comments
- Parks nominee is in hot water 9:30 p.m.
- Burris bows out of 2010 race 9:30 p.m.
- Regulators close Wyoming bank 9:17 p.m.
- Bailout $ may aid small business 9:16 p.m.
- Facebook sued on control of content 9:15 p.m.
- Poor more likely to leave California 9:13 p.m.
- Montana guv blasts GM 9:11 p.m.
- GM exits bankruptcy quickly 9:10 p.m.
- Death near Rockville suspicious 9:09 p.m.
- May trade deficit dropped to $26B 9:08 p.m.
- LDS seminary principal arrested
- Jazz talking Boozer trade?
- Reactions on Boozer speculation
- Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
- Jazz in back of line for free agents
- Blazers offer Millsap 4-year deal
- A primer for the 6th Potter film
- Okur signs two-year extension
- Jazz won't meet Lopez on Europe trip
- Restaurant destroyed by fire
- Letters: Palin mistreated
142 - Bronco collecting a galaxy of recruits
141 - Teachers struggle with district cuts
138 - Jazz talking Boozer trade?
136 - LDS seminary principal arrested
133 - Blazers may offer Millsap a contract
123 - Stadium of Fire flag burning was fake
94 - Fairness of BCS debated
81 - Chaffetz eyes challenging Bennett
74 - Blazers offer Millsap 4-year deal
73
As more and more dads are put out of work in this economy, I've been...
The photographs are mysterious, brooding, dark. They show dimples and...
"U of U Student | 11:24 a.m. July 10, 2009 How about this current modern...
This was a very accurate article. We ought to know. Credit was fairly given...
It's NOT about what the people want, it's about what makes the media money.
The whole business of retiring a flag by burning it is superstitiousness at...
Wow, does this seem like 'deja vu' when the Jazz pulled the same thing to get...
People living OUTSIDE of the US have NO protection of the constitution, ...
is dollar for dollar.
Everybody keeps saying Millsap is or isn't worth 8 to 9 million dollars a...
Not to worry, before the hammer falls on CA the federal government will bail...
Granite High was not only a school but it was a home away from home. ...


You can be the first to comment on this story.