Supposedly Harmful Speech as Enjoinable Nuisance?

I just noticed a remarkable lawsuit, Wright v. Islamic Center; the plaintiffs were trying to enjoin the construction of a mosque. The theory? Construction of the mosque would be a “public nuisance,” because the mosque would “spread radical Islam throughout the United States,” would help make the county even more of “a haven for terrorists” than it was before, and thus create “a clear and present danger to the … community.” (The complaint also raises objections to the supposed extra traffic that the mosque’s presence would cause, but that’s not the core of the allegations.)

A creative tort law theory, and in my view entirely misplaced, both as a matter of substantive tort law and the First Amendment. If some people associated with the mosque have been engaged in speech that fits within some narrow exception to First Amendment protection, it should be punished for that speech. If they have committed some other crime, then they can be punished for committing that crime. But you can’t enjoin a political or religious organization from erecting a building based on the organization’s supposed past bad speech, just as it can’t enjoin the publication of a newspaper based on the newspaper’s supposed past libelous articles.

Fortunately, the plaintiffs have dropped the lawsuit, at least for now. Let’s hope it stays dropped. Again, if the mosque founders have done something illegal, punish them for that; don’t try to use the courts to shut up their religious teachings or block their religious buildings because they supposedly “spread radical Islam.”

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