Federal judge strikes down Indiana town's ban on masks

The Associated Press

05.11.99

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	Ku Klux Klansmen face protesters outside Goshen, Ind., administrative offices.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A federal judge has ruled a Goshen city ordinance banning masks unconstitutional because it violates Ku Klux Klan members' rights to express themselves and associate anonymously.

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Miller ruled that society affords greater weight to the value of free speech than to the dangers of its misuse in issuing a summary judgment in favor of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Miller issued the ruling on May 4, but it was made public by lawyers in the case yesterday.

Last year, Goshen enacted an ordinance making it illegal for anyone 18 or older to wear a mask, hood or other device in public to conceal his or her identity, except for religious, safety or medical reasons. Violators were subjects to a $2,500 fine, which city officials had hoped would discourage the Klan from rallying there.

Members of the American Knights argued that they consider themselves members of a religion that includes seven sacred symbols: the robe, the hood, the Bible, the cross, fire, water and the sword. Their leader, the Rev. Jeffrey Berry, testified that members wear the masks to hide themselves because they are sinners in God's eyes.

The group also argued the mask is part of its uniform, and many members wear the masks to remain anonymous and reduce the likelihood that they will be harassed, threatened, attacked, lose their jobs or otherwise suffer retaliation for the group's ideas.

But Miller based his ruling on the Klan's argument that the ordinance violates members' rights to express themselves and associate anonymously.