Judge Allows International Law to Trump US Constitution’s First Amendment Right to Criticize Homosexuality
Photo Credit: WND
By Alexis Okeowo.
On Wednesday, Ugandan L.G.B.T. activists heard news that was exciting even though they had assumed it was inevitable: U.S. District Court Judge Michael Ponsor said that a lawsuit brought by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) against the anti-gay American pastor Scott Lively over his involvement in the effort to persecute gay people in Uganda can move forward. (Ponsor ruled against Lively’s motion to dismiss the suit.) The activists launched the case last year after months of collecting evidence of Lively’s anti-gay teachings over several of his trips to Uganda since 2002, and of his influence on the conception of the country’s “Kill the Gays” bill.
SMUG is being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, of New York, and the suit is based on the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to file civil lawsuits against Americans for violations of international law. I spent much of last year with Frank Mugisha, who leads SMUG, and wrote about him for the magazine in December. “We want to name and shame the people spreading homophobia here,” Mugisha told me.
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Judge: foreigners can sue U.S. pastor over sermons
By Bob Unruh.
[T]he ruling from Judge Michael Posner in a case brought by Sexual Minorities Uganda against Pastor Scott Lively of Abiding Truth Ministries could … establish that an international consensus disavowing long-held biblical standards could trump the U.S. Constitution.
SMUG alleges Lively must be punished for criticizing homosexuality, calling his speech a “crime against humanity” in violation of “international law”…
[Lively’s attorney said:] “We are disappointed with the decision because we believe SMUG’s claims are firmly foreclosed, not only by the First Amendment right to free speech, but also by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kiobel, which eliminated Alien Tort Statute claims for events that allegedly occurred in foreign nations”…
The judge took nearly 80 pages to say that he thought the allegations by SMUG were substantive and needed to be adjudicated.
He sided with the “gays” in his first paragraph, explaining that while SMUG is made up of groups “that advocate for the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people,” Lively is an “American citizen residing in Springfield, Mass., who, according to the complaint, holds himself out to be an expert on what he terms the ‘gay movement.’”
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