<\/p>\n
A Christian man from Minnesota was ordered to pay for his free speech rights \u2014 and now he\u2019s suing.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0a lawsuit\u00a0filed by the Center for American Liberty, Bryan Conwell is accusing officials in Benson of severe First Amendment violations by placing a \u201cprice tag\u201d on free speech after Cherie Stielow, now a city council member, forced him to purchase a commercial vendor\u2019s license to practice his constitutionally protected right to free speech at the city\u2019s farmers market, which Stielow facilitates.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment officials cannot force Americans to buy a license before they peacefully express their beliefs on public property,\u201d Mark Trammell of the Center for American Liberty said in\u00a0a statement about the case. \u201cIf they can silence Bryan today, they can silence anyone tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the legal complaint, Conwell regularly holds pro-life and Gospel-centered placards on public property and waits peacefully and silently, speaking only to those who initiate conversation with him. The suit states the Christian activist \u201cblocks no one, threatens no one, and sells nothing,\u201d adding, \u201cHe asks only to be left alone to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conwell, according to court documents, initially paid the $20 fee in order to hold his signs on public property during the hours the market was operating. In 2023, when he filled out the form and complied with the financial request, Conwell \u201cwas unaware of what his rights were and was simply trying to ensure that he could convey his message,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n
The city then allowed Conwell to be present at the market in September and October 2023, but only so long as he remained inside a vendor tent.<\/p>\n
At the same time as the dustup with Stielow was underway, another thread of Conwell\u2019s story was unraveling.<\/p>\n
In late July 2023, when all this began, the street preacher stood in a grassy area near the farmers market and spoke using a sound amplifier. At about 30 minutes to an hour into his speaking, Police Chief Ian Hodge purportedly told him he was breaking the city\u2019s 50-foot sound ordinance and needed a permit to continue, so Conwell stopped.<\/p>\n
Then between Aug. 9 and Oct. 24 of that year, Conwell made four separate trips to city hall, where he repeatedly attempted to apply for and obtain said noise permit. According to court documents, he was seemingly given the runaround by the city clerk, who said she was not aware of any such permit. He was also told the relevant person was unavailable and on more than one occasion was asked for his contact information but received no follow-up communication.<\/p>\n
That saga came to an abrupt end on Oct. 24, 2023, when Hodge and the city attorney informed Conwell no such permit existed.<\/p>\n
When Conwell returned to Benson on July 9 of this year and was approached yet again by Stielow, who handed him a vendor permit and demanded $20, he declined outright, reminding her \u2014\u00a0as in 2023 \u2014\u00a0he was not selling anything and would not be paying to hold a sign and speak peacefully with people on public property. He attempted the same thing on July 16.<\/p>\n
Conwell received a trespass citation in both 2026 instances. He now faces up to 90 days in jail and up to $2,000 in fines.<\/p>\n
Even one of the officers who cited Conwell purportedly expressed confusion to the preacher over the city\u2019s policy against speech that should be protected by the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, man, I want clarification, too,\u201d the officer told Conwell, according to court filings. \u201cThere are crimes of trespassing and crimes of disorderly conduct, but also you have your First Amendment right, so we\u2019ve got to try to figure that out. \u2026 I know what you\u2019re doing, I get it. I\u2019m glad someone is out here doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Christian man from Minnesota was ordered to pay for his free speech rights \u2014 and now he\u2019s suing. In\u00a0a lawsuit\u00a0filed by the Center for American Liberty, Bryan Conwell is accusing officials in Benson of severe First Amendment violations by placing a \u201cprice tag\u201d on free speech after Cherie Stielow, now a city council member,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2936,72,254,5281,3009,2062,1025,892,1624,5954],"class_list":["post-30702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-activist","tag-christian","tag-city","tag-constitutional","tag-minnesota","tag-price","tag-putting","tag-rights","tag-sues","tag-tag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}