SEATTLE, WA – Liberty Counsel filed a reply brief to the U.S. District Court in Western Washington in Russell Johnson et al. v. City of Seattle et al arguing for a preliminary injunction against the city’s unconstitutional event permit process. In May 2025, Seattle unlawfully denied the organizers of the grassroots revival event Mayday USA a permit to peacefully assemble at a traditional downtown location due to its religious message. Instead, it steered the May 24 event to Cal Anderson Park in a predominantly “LGBTQ+ community” where violent attacks from agitators ensued. Liberty Counsel contends that a government license to engage in protected speech is a classic prior restraint violation under the First Amendment.

In its September 2025 lawsuit, Liberty Counsel specifically argues that Seattle’s Special Event Permitting Scheme “vests unbridled discretion” into the hands of city officials to deny a permit and shut down an event based on the views expressed by the applicant and the views expressed at the event, as well as based on listener reaction to those views.

Seattle officials argue that Mayday’s permit decision was not based on viewpoint or message but rather a permissible “time, place, and manner restriction” based on neutral factors like traffic regulation and safety. But when permission is required before speaking, courts have ruled that is a prior restraint. Prior restraints on speech are presumptively unconstitutional. When prior restraint policies allow unfettered discretion by the decision-maker to grant or deny a permit, the risk of violating the First Amendment requires they be struck down. Restricting speech due to potential reactions from third parties is a “heckler’s veto,” which courts have held unconstitutional.

The reply brief quotes the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stating, “If speech provokes wrongful acts on the part of hecklers, the government must deal with those wrongful acts directly; it may not avoid doing so by suppressing the speech.”

Yet, at the Mayday event, police made no arrests after 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. Afterward, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a named defendant in the lawsuit, blamed the peaceful Mayday organizers for the violence they suffered rather than the perpetrators. 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 there to “provoke a reaction” from the LGBTQ community by “inherently opposing the city’s values.”

“Defendant Harrell’s statements after the event prove [the city’s] actions were content based,” stated Liberty Counsel.

In addition to Mayor Harrell, the lawsuit also names Chief of Police Shon Barnes as a defendant. 

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 seek a permanent injunction restraining the city from continuing its unlawful permitting process that violates the rights to free speech, religious exercise, peaceable assembly, and equal protection, as well as granting them equal access to Seattle’s streets and traditional public forums. 

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.

Throughout the month of May, 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, “The City of Seattle enacted an unconstitutional prior restraint on the religious speech of the Mayday organizers. Silencing the peaceful public expression of Christian viewpoints cannot be tolerated. The city’s unconstitutional permitting scheme cannot withstand First Amendment scrutiny and causes irreparable harm to free speech.”

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