OSA Press Release (August 22, 1984)

Author  John Peterson
Date  August 22nd, 1984¹

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 22/PRN – The city of Clearwater, Fla., has been enjoined by a
federal appeals court from enforcing a controversial city ordinance aimed at regulating
religious  and  charitable  institutions,  a  spokesman  for  the  Church  of  Scientology
announced here today.

The ordinance has been opposed as openly discriminatory and unconstitutional by more
than a dozen major religious organizations.

The  spokesman,  church  attorney  John  Peterson,  said  the  injunction  was  granted  to  the
Scientologists by the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, pending a full
hearing on the controversial measure, expected later this year.

The  ordinance  has  been  fought  in  the  courts  by  a  range  of  religious  organizations,
including the National Council of Churches, Americans United for Separation of Church
and State, the American Jewish Committee, the Church of Scientology, American Baptist
Churches in the U.S.A., the Florida Council of Churches, and the General Conference of
Seventh-Day Adventists, Peterson said.

He added that “the city of Clearwater paid more than $110,000 to Boston lawyer Michael
Flynn for the heavily criticized hearings that led to the ordinance.

The city is now minus that money, and Flynn obviously left the city holding the bag.”
Peterson continued: “We have presented evidence to federal investigators to show that
this  same  Michael  Flynn  was  the  central  figure  in  a  conspiracy  to  forge  a  $2  million
check.

It  is  not  surprising  that  it  was  Flynn’s  hearings  that  led  to  the  Clearwater  City
Commission’s ludicrous attempt to railroad through an ordinance that would effectively
destroy the First Amendment.

Contact – John Peterson at 213-628-6646 for the Church of Scientology.

Notes