Superior Court rules in favor of controversial street preachers

The Philadelphia Inquirer/October 19, 2014

By Mensah M. Dean

A controversial group of black street preachers who spew hate speech at whites, Asians, gays, women and some blacks they find objectionable, has a right to continue preaching, the state Superior Court has ruled.

The Oct. 14 decision affirmed Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Ellen Ceisler's ruling from July 2013, and is another blow to the Shops at Liberty Place, which sued the preachers.

Operating under the name Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, the preachers since 2012 have held semiregular Friday-afternoon demonstrations on the public sidewalk at 16th and Chestnut streets, which is near the main entrance to the Center City retail complex.

During these demonstrations, Israelite members stand on a makeshift stage espousing their religious beliefs and denouncing those they don't like.

"May the white man die today. May the Chinese man die today. May the east Indian man die today," one Israelite member said during a demonstration.

In its lawsuit, lawyers for Liberty Place stated that the demonstrations constitute a nuisance and trespassing because passersby stand on Liberty Place property to watch and listen.

In arguing the case before Ceisler last year, Liberty Place attorney Jason P. Gosselin, of the Center City firm Drinker Biddle, also said the Israelite's demonstrations should be stopped because the sidewalk is too small for such protests and because the group's message amounts to hate speech and ethnic intimidation.

Israelite attorney James Funt argued that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gave his clients the right to speak as they wished.

Ceisler agreed.

"I can sympathize with Liberty Place. I understand that this is diminishing the ambience and the experience of your customers and patrons, but that is the price we have to pay," she said in rejecting Liberty Place's request for a permanent injunction banning the demonstrations.

The Superior Court ruling, which was issued by President Judge Susan Peikes Gantman, Judge Jack Panella and Judge Victor Stabile, the latter writing the opinion, found that Ceisler was correct.

"We hold that the trial court did not err in stating the law of trespass and nuisance, or in ruling The Shops failed to prove either claim," the ruling said.

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