WASHINGTON — Church bells rang to the tune of justice in Phoenix on Monday when a federal court declared any ordinance prohibiting religious expression unconstitutional.
The day after 20-year-old Christ the King Cathedral moved two miles from its former location in 2007 to a space near a fire station, neighbors called the police. The complaint: The electronic carillon bells, which rang every hour from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 67 decibels, violated the city’s noise ordinance, which prohibits “any unusual or disturbing” sound. The same ordinance that allows for ice cream trucks to ring at 70 decibels and for a hot dog stand to blare “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” all day.
“This is almost unheard of in American law,” said Alliance Defense Fund attorney Gary McCaleb, who worked on the case.
McCaleb also noted that noise complaints waged against places of worship typically relate to street preachers or abortion protests.
Sgt. Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix police department agreed that the complaint was fairly “unusual.” However, he also noted that the frequency of the ringing was what perhaps distinguished this situation from other neighborhoods with churches.
“We value the first amendment,” Thompson assured. “But then we have the city ordinance. We were stuck in the middle.”
Although the church attempted to assuage its neighbors by erecting a buffer on its speakers and passing out informational flyers, the city filed a misdemeanor complaint in 2009. The following May, Bishop Rick Painter was convicted in city court, sentenced to 10 days in jail and three years probation. He appealed the charge, which the state court suspended. But it limited the church’s chiming to Sundays, designated holidays and to 60 decibels. Nearby places of worship, St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish and First Christian Church, banded together with Painter and filed a federal lawsuit in September.
The federal court ruled in favor of the church bells Monday when it ruled that the city of Phoenix cannot prohibit “sound generated in the course of religious expression.”
The ADF’s next stop is the state court, where the case is already in appeal.
“We want to have the state court clear the bishop’s name,” McCaleb said.