Pleasant Grove case gains supporters

New York City filed a brief saying it worries that if the court rules against Pleasant Grove, it could thwart New York's ability to control what is placed in Central Park.

"Within our parks are some 1,200 monuments," and most were donated, the New York brief said. Even so, the city has accepted only a fraction of what has been offered through the years.

A group of nine other cities nationally — including Provo and Ogden — joined a brief saying that if the current decision stands, each of them "will be forced to choose between removing works it has accepted ... or allowing its public places to serve as the forum for display of works without regard for whether those works promote the common good."

A group of 14 states and Puerto Rico — including Utah — joined in a brief saying that "government speech" protections allow them to accept ads on their behalf that say "immunize your child" without also forcing them to accept billboards that say "immunization is a government conspiracy." The brief said states should be allowed to accept monuments without also accepting memorials with an opposite view.

Meanwhile, in support of Summum, the Rutherford Institute said arguments such as "the Statue of Liberty does not require a Statue of Tyranny" are simplistic and ignore that "the city should not, under the guise of 'government speech,' be exempt from the restraint of First Amendment viewpoint discrimination" by accepting some religious monuments and not others.

An example of briefs not in support or opposition of either party was one filed by the Boy Scouts of America. It urged the court to narrow its decision to public monuments and not to expand it to whether governments are essentially adopting as their own any views on monuments or views aired in publicly owned forums.

If the court widened the decision, the Scouts argued, it could help activists and governments that "have launched attacks to exclude Boy Scouts from government facilities and programs" because of its practice to exclude avowed gays and to require members to vow to do one's "duty to God."

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