SEATTLE, WA – Liberty Counsel filed an opening brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Russell Johnson et al v. City of Seattle et al after the district court denied its motion for a preliminary injunction against Seattle’s unconstitutional event permit process.

Liberty Counsel represents several lead Mayday organizers, such as Russell Johnson, lead pastor of The Pursuit, a Christian church in Washington; Jenny Donnelly, founder and president of Her Voice Movement, Inc.; and other lead organizers Robert Donnelly and Ross Johnston.

The plaintiffs are the religious organizers of the grassroots revival event Mayday USA who wanted to hold a worship and prayer event on Seattle’s Pike Street, a traditional public forum. The purpose of the Mayday USA event was to worship, advocate against abortion and human trafficking, and advocate for protecting children and the family unit. However, Seattle officials denied this location and redirected them to Cal Anderson Park in a predominantly “LGBTQ+ community,” where violent attacks from agitators ensued during their event on May 24, 2025, whereby police shut down the event.

The plaintiffs argue that Seattle’s special events permitting scheme and its application violated the First Amendment (free speech, assembly, and free exercise of religion) and the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The district court denied the injunction request not on the merits of the claims but due to a “lack of standing” since Mayday currently has no future pending event requests where constitutional harm might again take place. While the Court allowed Mayday’s claims of past constitutional violations to proceed, Liberty Counsel asserts there is still standing for potential future harm since the permit scheme, as it was enforced against Mayday USA, acts as a prior restraint on where a message can be expressed posing a real censorship threat—a First Amendment violation. Thus, the plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction restraining the city from continuing its unlawful permitting process to protect against any future violations while the past violation is still under scrutiny in the lower court.

The brief argues that Seattle’s event permitting system is an “unconstitutional prior restraint” that gives unchecked power to government officials, enables viewpoint discrimination and “heckler’s vetoes,” which denotes a “credible threat” of future religious speech suppression, wrote Liberty Counsel.

Seattle defendants, such as former Mayor Bruce Harrell and Chief of Police Shon Barnes, argue the organizers’ religion was not “relevant” in the permit denial. Liberty Counsel rebuts this assertion with Mayor Harrell’s own remarks after the violent perpetrators disrupted the event. At the Mayday event, violent protestors assaulted attendees and volunteers by throwing urine-filled water balloons, used pepper-spray and tear gas, brandished weapons, destroyed equipment, and lobbed violent threats at women and children. Yet, police made no arrests. Even though city officials urged organizers to choose Cal Anderson Park when denying their original Pike Street location request, Mayor Harrell stated that the event was held in an LGBTQ community to “provoke a reaction” by “inherently opposing the city’s values.” He blamed the peaceful Mayday organizers for the violence they suffered rather than the perpetrators while other religious sects and leaders joined in to condemn Mayday’s religious speech. 

Throughout the month of May 2025, the organizers planned Mayday revival events in five major U.S. cities—New York, Miami, Houston, Seattle, and Los Angeles. The five-city tour was a “Mayday” call for a nationwide Christian revival and to awaken America’s parents and politicians to the Gospel, and the need to protect children, families, and the nation’s religious freedoms. The events were permitted and held in the first three cities, though Los Angeles officials denied the organizers a permit to peacefully assemble on Hollywood Boulevard even though a few days later the city permitted the LA Pride Parade in the same location. Liberty Counsel has also filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles on behalf of Mayday USA organizers.

Mayday USA is inspired by a grassroots movement in Peru called “#DontMessWithOurKids.” Peruvian parents took to the streets, not in violence, but in prayer and worship, and took a stand against gender ideology and abortion. The movement helped change the government’s leadership, and as a result, gender confusion is now officially classified as a mental illness in Peru, and life is defined as beginning at conception.  

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Seattle’s permitting process acted as an unconstitutional prior restraint on the religious speech of the Mayday organizers. They have standing to pursue an injunction because their peaceful public expression of Christian viewpoints was treated differently than secular messages by not being allowed in the city’s traditional Pike Street public forum. The city’s unconstitutional permitting scheme cannot withstand First Amendment scrutiny and causes irreparable harm to free speech.”

For media interviews, please email [email protected].