An Arizona street evangelist is suing the city of Tucson and challenging an event policy barring religious speech after police officers threatened to arrest him for discussing Jesus at an annual holiday festival.David Hoffman has been evangelizing at public events for over a decade and views large public gatherings as crucial to his Christian ministry. "What we do is we share the gospel with people that are most likely never going to go into a church, and we go to events and places where there's not already a Christian witness, and we have conversations," he told Fox News Digital.For nearly ten years, Hoffman regularly attended Tuscon's Winterhaven Festival of Lights, a free holiday event where thousands of visitors walk through a residential neighborhood to view light displays.But during the December 2025 festival, Hoffman said city police officers barred him from sharing his faith and threatened him with criminal trespassing charges under new event rules.David Hoffman says he has attended the Tucson Christmas event for years without issue until December 2025.
(Matt Jonas/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty Images)GOP LAWMAKERS URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRENGTHEN FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS FOR STREET PREACHERS"Upon entering the event, we were told that we can't have any kind of religious expression," Hoffman told Fox News Digital."They said that you can be there to participate in looking at the lights.
But the moment, you know, we tried to talk to somebody or give out a gospel tract, that would lead to a violation of what they were enforcing."According to a federal lawsuit filed on Hoffman’s behalf by First Liberty Institute, the city of Tucson adopted an event solicitation policy last year prohibiting "religious, political, or issue-based leafleting" with signs posted at entrances relaying these prohibitions and warning that violators could face removal and trespassing charges enforced by Tucson police.When Hoffman attempted to speak with attende...