The Central Florida Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 13 against the City of Orlando alleging that the City's "large group feedings" ordinance violates the rights of freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, freedom of assembly, equal protection and due process guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution's First and Fourteenth Amendments. The complaint also alleges that the ordinance violates Florida's Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1998, which, it says, "provides that the government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion, unless the burden is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest." It asks the court to grant an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the ordinance.
The ordinance, passed July 24, 2006, on a 5-2 vote of the Orlando City Council, requires a paid permit for groups holding food sharings "intended to attract, attracting, or likely to attract" 25 or more people, including distributors and servers, in any of 42 parks in downtown Orlando. Any person, group or organization is allowed only two permits per park per 12-month period, which substantially curtails the activities of groups which hold weekly food sharings in city parks. Violation of the ordinance carries penalties of up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.
The lawsuit currently includes seven plaintiffs who share food with hungry and homeless people in downtown parks and in the downtown area:
- The First Vagabonds Church of God, a ministry by the homeless for the homeless;
- Brian Nichols, pastor of the First Vagabonds Church of God. According to the complaint, Nichols' "efforts to aid the homeless stem from his religious conviction that food and survival are fundamental human rights, and he sincerely believes that acts of charity toward the poor and homeless are an essential and required part of religious worship";
- Orlando Food Not Bombs, which, according to the lawsuit is "affiliated with the international Food Not Bombs movement, which is organized according to principles of egalitarianism, consensus, cooperation, autonomy, and decentralization. The group shares food with homeless and hungry people in Orlando to call attention to society's failure to provide food and housing to each of its members and to reclaim public space. The name Food Not Bombs states the group's most fundamental principle: society needs to promote life, not death";
- and four individual members of Orlando Food Not Bombs: Ryan Scott Hutchinson, Benjamin B. Markeson, Eric Montanez and Adam Ulrich.
According to the complaint, "all plaintiffs ... fear [City and police] harassment, arrest and prosecution for violating" the ordinance.
"We are looking for a solution to the problem, not a band-aid fix," said Orlando civil rights lawyer Jacqueline Dowd, who is representing the plaintiffs. "We reached out to the City and other groups to try and find a solution and we are confident that through this lawsuit we will be able to accomplish that."
The City of Orlando has 20 days from the date of filing to respond to the lawsuit.
Read the Complete Text of the Lawsuit (pdf; Adobe Acrobat required)