Town of Jackson, Wyoming will pay $50,000 to settle abortion protest lawsuit

Ksl.com reports: The town of Jackson and a local government insurance pool have agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a Nevada reverend and a national anti-abortion group over his arrest during a 2011 anti-abortion protest. The settlement of the lawsuit filed by the Rev. Chester E. Gallagher of Las Vegas and the group Operation Save America against Jackson and a former police lieutenant in the town's police department is a vindication, said lawyer Jack Edwards, who represented the plaintiffs. The settlement was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne. "It's a victory for the rule of law because the Bill of Rights serves as a restraint on government, not the people," he said on Tuesday. Jackson police arrested Gallagher after town officials secured a state court order barring him and other protesters from appearing on the town square. The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the lower court order banning anti-abortion protesters from the town square violated protesters' rights. The protesters weren't alerted in advance that the town had requested the court order. The town and other government entities last year paid $225,000 last year to settle an earlier federal lawsuit filed by Mark Holick, a pastor with Spirit One Christian Ministries in Wichita, Kansas, who also was arrested at the 2011 protest. Edwards also had represented Holick...