A Livingston Parish Council ordinance outlawing fortunetelling and soothsaying is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
A Wiccan minister, Cliff Eakin, sued the parish over the ordinance, asserting inspiration from the divine transmitted by a Wiccan minister should be treated legally the same way as a message from God transmitted to a congregation by a Christian minister.
Under the First Amendment, the government can’t prohibit the expression of an idea just because society finds the idea disagreeable, according to the opinion by U.S. District Judge James J. Brady of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District.
Eakin said that a Wiccan who accepts a donation for telling fortunes, for instance, shouldn’t be treated any differently from ministers or churches accepting tithes for passing on instructions on what they believe is God’s will.
