The city of Overland Park, Kansas has learned a very expensive lesson about violating the religious freedom of Christians.

The city has paid $50,000 in legal fees after a court ruled the violated the rights of Christians who were handing out materials about their soccer camp at a city-owned soccer complex.  The city had banned Victory Through Jesus Sports Ministries from handing out flyers on the sidewalk.  The U.S. District Court ruled that there was no difference between those sidewalks and any other public sidewalk.

Gordon Hunjak of Victory Through Jesus Sports Ministries filed suit after they were threatened with arrest for continuing to hand out the materials.  The city then passed a law saying that the soccer park and surrounding area was “a non-public forum.”

The city’s defense to the court was that they were trying to control litter and the flow of pedestrian traffic into the facility.  The court said if that was really the case, the response of the city was excessive.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Hunjak, said in a statement that the case should warn other cities that it is important to respect the religious freedom of citizens.