After Arresting a Preacher for Feeding the Homeless, City Slapped With Major Lawsuit

The city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida has a law against feeding the homeless, but one local preacher has steadfastly refused to abide by the law. He has been arrested several times for breaking this law when he served homeless people a meal despite the law. Now a major lawsuit has been filed against the city.

Of course, it is “rock and hard place” for the city as Fort Lauderdale tries to find a way to eliminate these vagrants from infesting the city. On the other hand, is the law preventing the feeding of the homeless even legal?

Some say it is not.

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“This statute, this law in the city, is unconstitutional,” Scherer told Local 10 News. “It’s nonsense. It’s trying to restrict the feeding programs so the homeless will not gather (in public), and will go somewhere else so we will not see them,” Scherer continued.

The law violates the U.S. Constitution as well as the Florida Religious Freedom Restoration Act, according to Scherer.

“The homeless people are not being treated equally with the rest of the community,” he told Local 10 News.

Sims has deeper moral reasons for standing his ground.

“We are simply trying to feed people who are hungry,” Sims told the Sun Sentinel. “To criminalize that is contrary to everything that I stand for as a priest and as a person of faith.”

The city’s mayor, Jack Seiler, defended the controversial law.

“I’m not satisfied with having a cycle of homeless in city of Fort Lauderdale,” Seiler told the Sun Sentinel. “Providing them with a meal and keeping them in that cycle on the street is not productive.”

What do you think about this one? Tell us in the comments, won’t you?

Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, BigJournalsim.com and all Breitbart News' other sites, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, and many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs across the country to discuss his opinion editorials and current events as well as appearing on TV networks such as CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and various Chicago-based news programs. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture" which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston and follow him on Twitter, on Google Plus , and Facebook.

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