Our First Amendment Rights

On this page, you will find resources to help you understand your Constitutional Rights as an open air preacher/street evangelist, as well as help you stand up for your rights. Too many times today, open air preachers have encounters with unlawful cops. We need to stand up for our rights while we still have them!

Attention, if you are having problems with your 1st Amendment Rights being infringed upon in your area, please contact the Alliance Defense Fund. They may be able to help you out. They are our lawyers when it comes to defending our 1st Amendment Rights.

Articles

Open Air Preaching Rights- It is always good to know what your legal rights are before you go out and Open Air preach.  You may even want to carry a copy of your rights on you.  Even some well-meaning police officers don't know what the Law says about this issue.

Should I Get Arrested?- This is from the Alliance Defense Fund - What does a 1st Amendment Lawyer think about open air preachers getting arrested?

Dealing With Police- This artilce has some good, practical tips when it comes to dealing with the police. This is inevitable with the open air preacher, so it is a MUST READ.

Supreme Court Rulings- A list of rulings from the Supreme Court of the U.S. on street preaching and public speech in general.

Audios

In the audio files below, Kerrigan Skelly is speaking to a group of Evangelists about their First Amendment Rights before they hit the streets. The city they are about to go out and evangelize in has had lots of problems concerning First Amendment Rights lately (at the time he is speaking).

Part 1        Part 2

Videos

Below, you can watch some videos of Kerrigan Skelly in some of their encounters with the police and other authorities.

Arrested In Front of "Prosperity Gospel" Church- Kerrigan Skelly and four others were concerned for the people who are deceived by word-faith and prosperity Gospel preachers. So, they decided to reach out to them. They ended up getting unlawfully arrested.




Artsplosure Festival- Festival organizers and police try to unlawfully kick Kerrigan Skelly off of public property. He wasn't even preaching. The organizers were even willing to be unlawful just to make him go away.




Taste of Charlotte- Kerrigan Skelly gets kicked out of a public event that was held on public property because the organizers didn't like them or their message.




Fayetteville After Five- During the Summer, Fayetteville, NC has a free concert on the 3rd Thursday of every month. Watch as Kerrigan Skelly deals with a security guard, a concert organizer and two police. He was unlawfully kicked off and threatened with trespass on PUBLIC PROPERTY!




Wake County Technical Community College- Kerrigan Skelly did all that was asked of him and required of him by the college. In the end, he was kicked off of the campus for an unlawful reason. Watch the whole situation from beginning to end as he deals with violent students, irrational and emotional admin and security and ignorant cops. Kerrigan eventually won this battle in court with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund. Wake Tech paid ADF $15,000 in lawyer's fees, paid Kerrigan $1 (proves I'm not "in this for the money") and changed their policies significantly.




Kentucky State University- Kerrigan Skelly is seen here, dealing with the security and admin on Kentucky State University. They wanted him to go preach where there were no people to preach to. Kerrigan Skelly refused to do so.




Fairborn, OH Sweet Corn Festival- Kerrigan Skelly and Tracy Bays are seen here, dealing with the police and festival organizers. They told them that they couldn't pass out tracts, wear sandwich boards, talk to people about Christ or open air preach. Eventually, this was dealt with through a lawsuit and Kerrigan Skelly and Tracy Bays won. Watch the video to find out the details.




The Security and Officials of Brimstone Arena in Nashville, TN- Kerrigan Skelly, and Tracy Bays are seen here, dealing with the security (sometimes they are off duty police) and officials of Brimstone Arena in Nashville, TN. Kerrigan Skelly and Tracy are told that they are not allowed to preach near the doors of the arena, even though the arena is publicly subsidized. They are threatened by the arena security and officials many times. Kerrigan Skelly and Tracy "call their bluff" though. Watch the video to find out what happens.




Preacher Mugged by Security and Off-Duty Police!- Kerrigan Skelly is physically harassed by the security of Brimstone Arena in Nashville, TN, as well as by off-duty police, who are working for Brimstone Arena. A discussion ensues, with Brimstone Arena officials, as well as on-duty police offices. They are told that they can't use amplification and that they can't use their cameras. They call their bluff again and do all of those things, anyway. Watch the video to find out what happens.




Violent, Angry and Intolerant Homosexuals- Kerrigan Skelly and Tracy Bays went to the 2013 Sodomite Shame Parade in Louisville, KY. See for yourself, just how violent, angry, unaccepting and intolerant Homosexuals are, of the Biblical message. The cops protected us for most of the time, but once they "ditched" us, we were violently attacked. We also had our possessions stolen and destroyed.