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(Salt Lake City-AP) -- When it comes to Salt Lake City's Main Street plaza, the ACLU says it may sue the city if Mayor Rocky Anderson follows through with a plan to hand over a public easement to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mark Lopez, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, says the deal proposed by Mayor Anderson would violate the First Amendment's ban against government establishment of religion.
Lopez says the city would be, quote, "bending over backward" to protect the church from having to allow freedom of speech on the plaza, as a federal court has ordered.
The church bought the block of Main Street from the city, but the city maintained a 24-hour public access easement.
The mayor's proposal is awaiting approval from the City Council.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
