Post by Watchman on Mar 1, 2007 18:00:55 GMT -5
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
(Washington) The Supreme Court Tuesday declined to hear an appeal from a conservative pastor who is battling the New York City Borough of Staten Island for ordering the removal of a billboard containing a Biblical condemnation of homosexuality.
The Rev. Kristopher Okwedy, founder of Keyword Ministries claims the borough decision violated his First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of religion.
Okwedy appealed to the Supreme Court after state and federal courts dismissed the case.
The high court did not explain its unanimous decision. He was represented by a lawyer furnished by the American Family Association.
In 2003 New York billboard company PNE removed the sign bought by Okwedy after then-Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari wrote a letter of protest to the company.
Okwedy paid PNE Media about $2,500 to design billboard signs that quoted a passage from Leviticus: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind. It is abomination."
In his letter to PNE's president Molinari, a Republican, said "I want to inform you that this message conveys an atmosphere of intolerance which is not welcome in our borough." He went on to remind the company made a lot of money from billboard signs in Staten Island.
Okinedy sued PNE for breach of contract but Federal Judge Nina Gershon dismissed the suit.
Okwedy went to the Court Appeals Court which ordered the case revisited. The court ruled that "Molinari's letter could be found to contain an implicit threat of retaliation if PNE failed to accede to his requests."
In November 2005 Gershon again dismissed the suit and Okwedy appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals which appointed a three judge panel to examine the case. But the Second Circuit also dismissed the case.
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