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For Immediate Release
May 30, 2001
Trenton, N.J. — Acting on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) filed a lawsuit today challenging a municipal ordinance prohibiting the distribution of "any leaflets, circulars, pamphlets or other printed matter on the beachfront or boardwalk." The suit stems from charges filed last August against RaeLeann Smith, a PETA employee, for handing out leaflets on the boardwalk during an anti-fur demonstration in Belmar. Prosecutors dropped the criminal charges when Smith and the ACLU-NJ told them that she would challenge the constitutionality of the ordinance. The ordinance will now face judicial review, which the plaintiffs hope will clear the way for PETA to leaflet again this summer.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Trenton, alleges that the ordinance violates both the First Amendment and the New Jersey Constitution by prohibiting free speech. The suit asks the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and to order Belmar to stop enforcing it.
"The animals who are trapped, drowned, and beaten to death in the wild or gassed, strangled, or electrocuted on fur farms simply for their fur cannot speak for themselves — we must do it for them. Free speech rights are protected, and Belmar's decision to defy the Constitution must not go unchallenged," says Smith.
"PETA's activists have a message about an important social issue, and the Constitution gives them the right to present that message to the public," explained Frank L. Corrado, an attorney representing PETA on behalf of the ACLU-NJ. "Ordinances such as Belmar's are dangerous because they limit society's access to valuable information and opinions," Corrado added.
The leaflets PETA had been distributing describe the crowded, filthy cages in which animals raised for their fur are confined. Suffering on fur farms is compounded during the summer months when temperatures soar and foxes, minks, and other animals die from heat exhaustion.
PETA and Ms. Smith are represented by Frank L. Corrado of the Wildwood firm Rossi, Barry, Corrado & Grassi, P.C., and J.C. Salyer of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey Foundation. The lawsuit, captioned, PETA et al. v. The Borough of Belmar, was filed today in the District Court of New Jersey in Trenton.
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