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Contact:
Piper Hall
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
(202) 220-5022
phall@omm.com
Erika Tucker
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
(213) 430-7792
etucker@omm.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. - November 17, 2008 - On November 12, O’Melveny of counsel
Pam Harris presented an oral argument to the United States Supreme Court in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, a closely watched case concerning the constitutional status of religious monuments placed in public parks. Harris, along with O’Melveny partner
Walter Dellinger, of counsel
Irv Gornstein, counsel
Shannon Pazur, and associate
Kate Tarbert, represent Summum, a church based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The case presents the question of whether the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause allows a city to open a park to one private group for the display of a monument, but deny another group the same right of access based on the message to be conveyed. The city of Pleasant Grove, Utah, refused Summum permission to erect a monument depicting the “Seven Aphorisms of Summum”—the religion’s core principles—in a public park, even though the City previously had allowed the Fraternal Order of Eagles to erect its monument of the Ten Commandments in the park. The City claimed that it had an unwritten policy allowing access only for monuments directly related to city history. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled for Summum, noting that there was little factual support for the City’s claim of an unwritten “historical relevance” policy and concluding that the City had in any event discriminated on the basis of content in denying Summum’s application for display.
Harris argued on behalf of Summum that because the City has created a public park and routinely accepted all displays as expressions of private views, it cannot now discriminate against Summum’s views by denying them equal access to the park. The City’s “government speech” defense, Harris argued, does not apply here; the Eagles, and not the City, conceived of and created the Ten Commandments monument, and the monument continues to speak for the Eagles.
In addition to the briefing team, and joined by students from the Harvard Law School Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Clinic that O’Melveny founded, Firm lawyers Matt Shors, Sri Srinivasan, Karl Thompson, Ryan Scott, and Lilit Voskanyan participated in moot courts for Harris.
November 17, 2008
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