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Federal Court Clears Christian Arrested for Bible Reading

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of a Christian man arrested while reading the Bible in front of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office in the city of Hemet.

Brett Coronado, the assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel in Hemet, says that Mark Mackey's reading was part of the church's evangelism ministry which regularly reads Scripture and hands out tracts in city parks and at the courthouse.  

In 2011, California Highway Patrol Officer Darren Meyer arrested Mackey while he was reading the Bible aloud in front of a group congregated at the DMV office waiting for it to open.  

In a Calvary Chapel video, Meyer is shown arresting Mackey as he reads, telling him, "You can preach on your own property. You can preach on a street corner but you're not allowed to preach here because this is a captive audience. They're standing in line. They want to do business."

In its ruling the 9th Circuit noted that a DMV security guard had previously asked Mackey to leave and when he did not, DMV officials called the California Highway Patrol (CHP), asking that he be removed from the property. CHP dispatch told Meyer that Mackey was "harassing customers waiting in line."

After Mackey was criminally prosecuted in California state court, he filed suit against Meyer, alleging unlawful arrest in violation of the 4th Amendment, as well as false arrest under state law.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals noted that Meyer maintained that Mackey was "yelling at the people waiting in line" and that there was "obvious verbal confrontation between the group of men and the people standing in line." Meyer also said the confrontation was "heated and nearing a physical state."

But the court disagreed with Meyer's account, noting "that version of events is completely belied by video and audio footage which does not reveal any confrontation whatsoever and merely shows Mackey reading the Bible aloud, somewhat apart from people standing in line."

"It was objectively unreasonable for Meyer to think Mackey was obstructing or intimidating individuals based on the information relayed by the dispatcher in combination with what he witnessed upon arriving at the scene," the court added.

Mackey responded to the ruling saying "justice still prevails. I am excited that our country is going in the right direction."

His lawyer, Robert Tyler said, "It appears to me that the arrest and prosecution of my client was politically motivated because they did not agree with my client's speech.  But that is exactly why our founders created the First Amendment--to protect even disagreeable speech."

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About The Author

Heather
Sells

Heather Sells covers wide-ranging stories for CBN News that include religious liberty, ministry trends, immigration, and education. She’s known for telling personal stories that capture the issues of the day, from the border sheriff who rescues migrants in the desert to the parents struggling with a child that identifies as transgender. In the last year, she has reported on immigration at the Texas border, from Washington, D.C., in advance of the Dobbs abortion case, at crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, and on sexual abuse reform at the annual Southern Baptist meeting in Anaheim