SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A state government worker who alleges he
was forced to remove Bible verses, a bumper sticker reading
``Marriage: One Man, One Woman'' and other religious or political
items from the entrance of his office cubicle sued the California
Department of Social Services Monday, claiming the action violated
his First Amendment rights.
Enoch Lawrence, who works as a disability evaluation analyst in
the Roseville office of DSS, said in his lawsuit filed in U.S.
District Court in Sacramento that a supervisor told him the
materials ran afoul of a two year-old department policy
``prohibiting sexual harassment and unprofessional conduct.''
Lawrence received permission to repost the items, but only if
they couldn't be seen by anyone passing by his workspace, according
to the lawsuit. He was told that if he put the materials up again
in public view, he could be fired for ``willful disobedience and
insubordination.''
The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian law firm
that has successfully challenged the boundaries separating church
from state, is representing Lawrence.
Joshua Carden, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney, said the
department's directive was a clear infringement on his client's
rights to free speech and freedom of religion because other
employees in Lawrence's office were allowed to post religious and
political materials in their cubicles.
``When you have a place where you allow people to put up
personal expression, you don't get to pick and choose what you are
going to allow and what you are going to not, especially when it's
what religious speech you are going to allow or not,'' Carden said.
A spokesman for the Department of Social Services said the
agency could not comment on the lawsuit because its lawyers had not
received it as of late Monday.
Named as a defendant in Lawrence's lawsuit are DSS director Rita
Saenz and two supervisors in the department's Roseville branch.
Carden said that among the items a supervisor removed from
Lawrence's cubicle included a sign reading ``Jesus Spoken Here,''
an article entitled ``Stop Judicial Tyranny,'' and another article
about former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was removed from
office for refusing a court order to move a Ten Commandments
monument.
The lawsuit seeks to reinstate Lawrence's ability to decorate
his cubicle as he chooses and to have the department's policy on
workplace expression overturned, Carden said.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)