Church in 2nd Plaza suit

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ruled Wednesday the church could become a co-defendant along with Salt Lake City in the American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over the most recent Main Street Plaza plan.

During a scheduling conference at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City, ACLU attorney Mark Lopez had no objection to the church's inclusion in the suit and promptly stated he would like to interview Presiding Bishop H. David Burton and Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson for his case.

Those interviews would seek to discover Anderson and Burton's motives surrounding the deal that traded the city's easement on Main Street Plaza for two acres of church-owned land in Glendale where a community center is to be built.

Lopez suggested he also might seek to interview City Council members about their motives in the deal but added he might not need those interviews.

Chief Deputy City Attorney Steven Allred and church attorney Alan Sullivan will oppose the interviews. Sullivan said there is some case law that disallows certain government officials from being interviewed regarding their motives in voting for legislation.

Kimball will hear arguments on whether to allow the interviews on Dec. 5.

The judge also set a date of Jan. 26 for another hearing on the ACLU's motion to restore free speech on the plaza until the second plaza suit is decided in court. At that same hearing, lawyers will also present arguments on city and church motions to dismiss the ACLU's suit.

The initial Main Street Plaza suit came after the city sold a block of Main Street to the LDS Church in 1999 for $8.1 million. In that sale, the city reserved a public access easement across the plaza but gave the church the authority to prohibit on the plaza protests and proselytizing, certain dress and other things the LDS Church finds offensive.

The ACLU of Utah sued Salt Lake City over the restrictions, and last year the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver sided with the ACLU. The court said the city cannot have public access on the plaza while forbidding certain types of speech there.

The mayor later developed the community center deal, which made the plaza entirely private and relinquished public guarantees of free expression and pedestrian passage on it.

Earlier this year, the ACLU, with a half-dozen plaintiffs, filed suit challenging the community center deal on the basis that it takes away constitutional guarantees of free expression and was too favorable a deal for the LDS Church.

E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com

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