Judge to rule on querying VIPs in plaza suit

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball will rule early this week on whether the American Civil Liberties Union can interview three of the most powerful men in Salt Lake City — Mayor Rocky Anderson, billionaire Jon M. Huntsman Sr. and Presiding Bishop H. David Burton of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — as part of ongoing legal wrangling in the second Main Street Plaza case.

Friday, Kimball heard arguments about whether the ACLU could interview the three men for their legal motions designed to recreate free speech on the plaza. The ACLU is asking Kimball to return free speech and expression there until the larger case surrounding the city's second Main Street Plaza deal is settled.

Those interviews would seek to show what the ACLU contends is the underlying reason behind the community center deal Anderson offered to solve the sticky Main Street Plaza fray last December. That underlying reason, ACLU attorney Mark Lopez said Friday, is that Anderson wanted to give up the city's plaza easement to appease the LDS Church.

"We know from the mayor's many statements how important that easement was," Lopez said, adding "we're still trying to figure out why the mayor totally walked away (from protecting the easement)."

The ACLU contends that Anderson, Huntsman and Burton, or other members of the LDS Church hierarchy, conspired behind the scenes to craft a deal that eventually became Anderson's community center deal, signed into law in July, Lopez said Friday.

The back-room dealing, Lopez said, created a deal that favored the LDS Church and thus violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits too much religious involvement in government.

According to Lopez, the many secular interests tied into the deal masked the underlying and unconstitutional bottom line.

"The reasons proffered by the government, at the end of the day, were, in fact, a sham," he said.

Chief Deputy City Attorney Steven Allred said Huntsman and Anderson should be protected from being interviewed, since, in many cases, chief executives and their officers, including citizen advisers, are protected from court-ordered interviews.

"It would have a chilling effect on the kind of community involvement we find very valuable," Allred said.

Moreover, Allred said, the ordinance that the City Council passed ratifying Anderson's community center deal was loaded with secular benefits. For starters, it will create a $5 million community center in Glendale and paid for half of the legal fees the city owed the ACLU after the first Main Street Plaza suit.

Church attorney Alan Sullivan similarly argued against allowing interviews of church leaders like Bishop Burton.