Church bells will toll in Phoenix now that a court order has been secured and the city's noise ordinance has been silenced.
"What had happened is the city of Phoenix had sentenced Bishop Rick Painter to jail for simply playing church bells at his church, Christ the King Cathedral," explains Erik Stanley, attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). "[Our firm] and other churches in Phoenix, including St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the noise ordinance." (See earlier article)Painter was convicted and sentenced to jail even after his church compromised with the local residents who previously filed complaints. Stanley argues that an ice cream truck plays music along the streets louder than the church bells, as the chimes registered at 67 decibels in comparison to the truck's 70 decibels. "Bishop Painter could go out and hire an ice cream truck to go up and down the street in front of his church and play music as loud as the church bells coming from the sanctuary, and he would be okay under the noise ordinance," the ADF attorney suggests. "And that just illustrates how objective [sic] and arbitrary this really is." The court's ruling means that Painter is likely to prevail if the case goes to trial. The next move is up to the city of Phoenix.
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