SPOKANE, Wash – A former Washington lawmaker filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying the City of Spokane and several councilmembers violated his civil rights by condemning what he called a religious rally in downtown Spokane.
The 2023 rally gained attention because then-mayor Nadine Woodward attended and appeared on stage with Shea and Christian nationalist Sean Feucht.
After the rally, the city council passed a resolution condemning Woodward’s appearance at the rally because of Feucht’s involvement.
The resolution referred to Shea as a “domestic terrorist” though he points out he was never charged or convicted of anything related to that.
Shea initially filed a tort claim in Spokane County Superior Court, asking for $24 million in damages.
This week, the lawsuit was filed in federal court. It names as defendants the City of Spokane, Council President Betsy Wilkerson, Zack Zappone, Karen Stratton and Lori Kinnear.
Wilkerson, Zappone, Stratton and Kinnear are the council members who voted in support of the resolution which the lawsuit contends “brazenly brands Pastor Shea as a domestic terrorist and attains him with criminal guilty and blameworthiness without due process of law.”
The suit calls the action “an egregious example of the government and its officials willfully ignoring the Constitution and the rights it secures.”
In the days following the rally, Woodward distanced herself from Shea, saying he shouldn’t have turned a prayer service into a political event.
At the rally, she was seen giving him a hug on the side of the stage.
Woodward has also threatened legal action against the city for the resolution condemning her appearance at the rally, though no lawsuit has been filed.
Shea’s lawsuit accuses the city and the named council members of showing “open hostility toward Christian beliefs.”
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