SEATTLE — The organizers of a conservative Christian rally earlier this year in Seattle are suing the city — and Mayor Bruce Harrell individually — over what they say was a violation of their First Amendment right to freedom of speech, religion and assembly.

The Mayday USA rally last May, part of a five-city tour to advocate for the “restoration of the family unit as Biblically ordained,” was put on by a group of pastors and religious groups based both in Washington and elsewhere.

The event devolved into chaos when counterprotesters targeted event attendees and clashed with police, leading to multiple arrests of people opposed to the group’s presence on Capitol Hill.

Organizers say the city’s permitting process forced them out of their preferred downtown location and into Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson park, the hub of Seattle’s LGBTQ+ community and therefore antithetical to the organizers’ message.

That process and the alleged failure of the city and the police department to ensure their event’s success was discriminatory, the lawsuit alleges. Harrell’s post-event statements accusing organizers of intentionally stoking tensions was further evidence of the city’s anti-Christian sentiment, the group says.

The city, the suit reads, “exercised their unconstitutionally unbridled discretion to target, censor, and unconstitutionally restrict Mayday USA’s religious beliefs, expression, and speech.”

Harrell and other city leaders, though displeased with the group’s presence in Seattle, said at the time that the city’s permitting process was done in accordance with First Amendment rights and city workers made a good-faith effort to provide public space for the rally to take place. The decision to deny organizers a downtown permit was due to logistical and safety concerns, not ideological ones.

The organizers came to Seattle to stoke precisely the sort of chaos that unfolded, Harrell said.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for Harrell declined to comment on active litigation but pointed to a similar event permitted in August as evidence the city allows people of all viewpoints to express themselves.

“We have frequently and consistently shared the City’s process that allows for people of all viewpoints to express their First Amendment rights in public spaces,” the spokesperson said.

Nevertheless, the melee of the rally quickly blew up into a microcosm of the larger fights between the country’s liberal and minimally religious cities and the religious right. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino threatened to open an investigation into Seattle, though the local office declined to confirm or deny whether any such investigation was ever initiated.

The origins of the Mayday USA gathering date back to February, when co-leader Ross Johnston told a crowd in Portland they would host an event in “antifa’s headquarters,” aka Seattle.

He and other organizers initially applied for a permit to rally near Pike Place Market. But the city’s Special Events Committee denied their application, saying the event would be “too large to be safely accommodated at the proposed location.”

City officials instead offered two city parks instead: Cal Anderson and Lake Union. Organizers applied for the first and were granted a permit.

The actual event, underpinned by anti-LGBTQ+ messages and calls for a more explicitly “biblical” society, featured a parade of guests speaking from a stage, as well as free haircuts and about 500 attendees. Among them included Matt Shea, the Eastern Washington pastor and former state representative who was removed from the Republican caucus for distributing fliers extolling the “biblical basis for war.”

A roughly equal number of counterprotesters gathered in the park.

The standoff turned physical as some protesters threw water bottles at police. Some rallygoers alleged protesters ripped down their banners and sprayed them with Silly String.

Police made 23 arrests of counterprotesters.

Following the event, Harrell said the “far-right rally was held here … to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values, in the heart of Seattle’s most prominent LGBTQ+ neighborhood.”

He went on: “Anarchists infiltrated the counterprotestors group and inspired violence, prompting (Seattle Police Department) to make arrests and ask organizers to shut down the event early, which they did.”

In their lawsuit, the organizers say the rationale for denying their downtown permit was flawed and based on subjective standards. Part of the city’s rationale was based on a past Christian rally in the same area — which organizers say was not related in any way except for both being Christian. That was evidence of the city’s bias against Christian events.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that police tried to shut down the rally in response to the chaos unfolding. That decision was a “heckler’s veto” and represented “unbridled discretion to shut down protected assembly.”

Taken together, the city’s decision to deny a downtown permit and allow protesters to disrupt the event, followed by Harrell’s statements, added up to an “impermissible hostility towards religious gatherings.”

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington. A spokesperson for City Attorney Ann Davison said the office would not comment on pending litigation.

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