Sign of the times.For more than a decade, Johnie Heard of Taylor, Michigan Taylor is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 65,868 at the 2000 census. Taylor was originally known as Taylor Township and residents of the township voted to incorporate as the City of Taylor in May 1968. , has lived in low-income government housing owned by the city. She tends children in her home for a living. After Heard began displaying in one of her windows an 8-inch sign with the inscription "24 Hr. Prayer Station," the housing authorities ordered it removed. The authorities balked balk v. balked, balk·ing, balks v.intr. 1. To stop short and refuse to go on: The horse balked at the jump. 2. at the small placard's religious overtones, though they allowed other residents to display secular signs relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc holidays, sports teams and sundry other subjects. When Heard declined to remove her "Prayer Station" sign, eviction The removal of a tenant from possession of premises in which he or she resides or has a property interest done by a landlord either by reentry upon the premises or through a court action. proceedings were initiated against her. Though the city eventually abandoned its attempt to evict Heard, she sought legal help and filed a lawsuit claiming that the Housing Authority had violated both her right of free speech and the Fair Housing Act that precludes religious discrimination. She was represented in the case by Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a civil liberties legal defense organization. The case did not necessitate a trial however. On the eve On the Eve (Накануне in Russian) is the third novel by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons. of depositions, the Housing Authority agreed to settle by adopting a new rule allowing residents to display signs on their windows or doors, paying Liberty Counsel's attorney's fees attorney's fee n. the payment for legal services. It can take several forms: 1) hourly charge, 2) flat fee for the performance of a particular service (like $250 to write a will), 3) contingent fee (such as one-third of the gross recovery, and nothing if there is no and costs, and paying an undisclosed, though substantial, amount in damages to Heard. In a September 2 news release, Staver noted that "the housing authorities must respect the First Amendment rights of these residents. Certainly, the residents have the right to display religious messages in the windows of their own homes." |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion