Attorneys general support Church
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WASHINGTON — The Utah Attorney General's Office has filed a "friend of the court" brief in the Main Street Plaza appeal, siding with the Church and asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Along with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, attorneys general in Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and West Virginia have joined in signing the amicus brief, which was filed April 14 in Washington, D.C.
In the brief, state attorneys argue that a decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overrides Utah law and gives local government less control over property sales than similar controls afforded to the private sector.
When the city sold the block of Main Street between the Salt Lake Temple and the Church headquarters campus to the Church in 1999, it retained a public-access easement across the proposed plaza. In response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the easement creates a free-speech forum, and that the Church could not restrict behavior and speech on the plaza.
