Church, Salt Lake file motions on plaza

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wants in on the second Main Street Plaza lawsuit, and Salt Lake City wants the suit tossed out.

Wednesday — a day after voters approved Mayor Rocky Anderson for four more years — the church and the city both filed legal motions in the 3-month-old Main Street Plaza case.

More legal activity was expected today or Friday as the American Civil Liberties Union promised to respond to the latest filings.

Like it did in the initial Main Street Plaza suit, the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church filed a "motion to intervene" in the ACLU's second federal lawsuit challenging the city's Main Street Plaza deal signed with LDS Church leaders in July.

The deal, authored by Anderson, traded the city's public access easement across the plaza for two acres of land in Glendale where a privately funded community center will be built.

The deal came about after the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the ACLU that the easement created a public forum on Main Street Plaza. The church didn't like that ruling, saying it gave protesters and preachers a bully pulpit just feet from its downtown temple.

After a months of heated public debate, Anderson fashioned a deal to swap the easement for the community center and give the LDS Church the right to control speech on the plaza.

The ACLU sued again, saying the plaza remained an historical public place, that Anderson's trade overly favored the LDS Church and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The church's motion Wednesday asks federal judge Dale Kimball to allow the church to become a co-defendant along with Salt Lake City in the ACLU's second suit.

"The church has a clear interest in the subject matter of this action," states the motion, which was written by church attorney Alan Sullivan. "Plaintiffs' acknowledged aim in this lawsuit is to transform the church's property into a public arena in which plaintiffs and others can demonstrate, picket and distribute

literature. Plaintiffs' effort raise obvious questions about the church's rights in property for which it has paid."

ACLU attorneys said Wednesday they won't oppose the church joining the suit.

"Frankly their participation is welcome and is required for the full disposition of this case," ACLU attorney Mark Lopez said.