4 Wheaton College Students Prevented From Proselytizing in Millennium Park Should Be Paid $205K, City Lawyers Recommend

Cloud Gate (Johnny Knight / Statue Stories Chicago)Cloud Gate (Johnny Knight / Statue Stories Chicago)

Four Wheaton College students should be paid $205,000 to resolve a lawsuit claiming their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion were violated when they were kicked out of Millennium Park in December 2018 by security guards, city lawyers recommended.

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The proposed settlement is set to be considered by the City Council’s Finance Committee on Monday. A final vote of the City Council could come on Wednesday.

The incident began when four members of Wheaton College’s Chicago Evangelism Team, a group of students devoted to spreading the gospel in the city, were stopped from handing out religious literature to people in Millennium Park by security guards.

The students stopped passing out the literature, but one began preaching verbally, only to be told they were violating a city ordinance. The four students sued the city in September 2019 after city officials rebuffed their request to change the park rules to allow their efforts.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blakey ruled in February 2020 that the plaintiffs’ argument that the city’s rules for Millennium Park violated the First Amendment by banning speeches and the distribution of literature in the vast majority of the park was likely to prevail at trial. Blakey also blocked the city from enforcing the rules as the case proceeded through the court system.

The city revised its rules for Millennium Park after the lawsuit, and did so again in September. The rules now allow literature to be distributed throughout most of the park, but only one offer may be made and subsequent offers are banned after the offer has been rejected.

However, literature may not be distributed in the Lurie Garden, the Boeing Galleries or on the plaza surrounding the Cloud Gate sculpture, better known as the Bean, according to the rules.

The only restrictions on speech involve sound amplified to be heard more than 100 feet away from the speaker, or speech that is designed to disrupt a planned and permitted event in the park, according to the rules.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]


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