A South Carolina man is no longer barred from sharing his faith on a public sidewalk and can hold a sign that reads “Trust Christ.”
The U.S. District Court of the District of South Carolina entered a consent order with the Town of Chapin, South Carolina, to keep them from enforcing an ordinance that stopped local resident Ernest Giardino from holding religious signs in public without a permit.
The ordinance required Giardino to give town officials two weeks’ advance notice and limited him to holding his sign for only 30 minutes. Additionally, he was advised that he would need to change sidewalk corners every 15 minutes while holding a sign.
The new federal order revises the ordinance, and Giardino is now free to share his faith through his signs.
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“Mr. Giardino just wants to share his Christian faith with others,” said First Liberty Institute’s Senior Counsel Nate Kellum. “We commend the Town for revising the ordinance language so Mr. Giardino can live out his faith in the public sphere.”
As CBN News reported, First Liberty, a non-profit faith-based legal group, sent a letter to Chapin on behalf of Giardino last year, calling their requirement for a permit a violation of a local resident’s First Amendment rights.
“Permit schemes, like the one found in Chapin, have the effect of freezing speech before it is uttered,” it read. “Permit schemes are thus viewed skeptically, being ‘the most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.'”
The conflict began in the summer of 2024, when Giardino was on a public sidewalk at an intersection holding a 20×24 inch sign attached to a short handle, which read “Trust Christ He paid the price” on one side and “He Saved Others—Jesus—He’ll Save You” on the other side.
According to First Liberty, Giardino had marched around town with similar signs for about eight months.
However, on June 20, he was stopped by a Chapin police officer who told him he needed the city’s permission to share his message with a sign.
The next day, the city officials confirmed Giardino would have to apply for a permit to continue sharing his faith.
“A demonstration permit really should not apply to someone holding up a sign saying ‘Trust Christ, he paid the price,'” Kellum noted last year.
The town has amended its ordinance to remove the permitting requirement for small-scale demonstrations like Giardino’s, The State reports.
In a press release, First Liberty outlines that the town will pay nominal damages to Giardino and his attorney’s fees. According to The State, the town, in its own press release, shared that they would pay Giardino “a symbolic $1 in damages plus cover Giardino’s legal fees of $35,000.”
“That ordinance did not concern itself with what was on a sign — religious, political, sports, or any other topic; and the text of a sign was not required in the application process,” Chapin said in announcing the settlement. “Rather, the ordinance was intended to allow the Town to consider and manage issues of safety on and public use of often-narrow and heavily-traveled rights-of-way between and along streets and private property.”
