3 men arrested for reading Bible

A lawsuit has been filed in California to protect the rights of three men who were arrested after being accused of "impeding an open business" even though the "business" was the local department of motor vehicles, and it was closed. Oh, and the men were standing at least 50 feet from the entrance, impeding no one.... The arrests happened on Feb. 2, 2011, when the assistant pastor from Calvary Chapel of Hemet and two church elders went to the public property. Mackey then started reading the Bible aloud.... He was arrested less than 30 minutes later, and the two others were arrested a short time after that, even though they had not actually been reading the Bible aloud. The men believed they had a First Amendment right to free speech and they were standing in a planter in the parking lot and were on public property. A member of the California Highway Patrol approached Mackey, grabbed his Bible and arrested him.... "The arresting officer could find no appropriate penal code to use when arresting these men. The purpose of the arrests appears to have been to censor them...."