Threatened With Arrest for Talking About Jesus at a Holiday Festival, Street Preacher Sues the City of Tucson

A street preacher in Arizona, in the United States, has sued the city of Tucson. He alleges that at an annual holiday festival, police officers threatened him with arrest for talking about Jesus, and he has challenged an event policy that bans religious speech.

David Hoffman has been preaching at public events for more than a decade. He considers large public gatherings important for his Christian ministry. In his words, they deliver the gospel to people who will probably never go to church, and they go to events and places where there is no Christian witness beforehand, and talk with people there.

For nearly ten years, Hoffman regularly attended Tucson's Winterhaven Festival of Lights. It is a free holiday event where thousands of visitors walk through a residential neighborhood to view the light displays. But at the December 2025 festival, city police officers stopped him from sharing his faith and threatened him with criminal trespassing charges under new event rules, he said.

In Hoffman's words, as soon as they entered the event they were told that no religious expression of any kind would be allowed. They could stay to enjoy the lights, but if they tried to talk to anyone or hand out gospel leaflets, that would be a violation of the enforced rules, they were told.

According to the federal lawsuit filed on Hoffman's behalf by the First Liberty Institute, the city of Tucson last year adopted an event policy banning the distribution of 'religious, political or issue-based leaflets.' Signs posted at the entrances announced the ban and warned violators that they would be removed and face trespassing charges through the Tucson police.

According to the complaint, when Hoffman tried to talk with attendees, officers approached him and said he could not 'preach' inside. When Hoffman asked whether the problem was the volume of his voice, one officer explained that the problem was with the message he was delivering, which was one of the prohibited rules.

The complaint further says that the officer told Hoffman that simply asking someone whether they wanted to discuss Jesus amounted to 'proselytizing,' and that once the proselytizing began, it became a problem.

According to Garrett Bell, legal counsel for First Liberty, at one point several police officers stopped Hoffman. Hoffman asked whether, if someone came to him and wanted to know how they could be saved, he could answer them. The officers told him no — he would have to go outside the event boundary to have that conversation.

According to the complaint, officers and an event organizer told Hoffman that these speech restrictions were established city policy in response to past complaints. After repeated warnings, four uniformed Tucson police officers escorted Hoffman out of the festival amid threats of arrest.

Officers told him he could preach in a designated 'free speech area' outside the festival boundary. In Hoffman's words, the place looked like a cage to him, because barricades had been put up there and he had been told to stay in a specific corner.

First Liberty alleges that the barricaded area was set up beside a busy road, making conversation with passersby virtually impossible. The legal team also said that commercial food vendors, live performers and a 15-passenger 'pedal pub' party bike playing music through a sound system were allowed throughout the festival area.

In December 2025, First Liberty sent a demand letter to Tucson on Hoffman's behalf warning that the policy was unconstitutional, but the group says it received no reply. This week the group filed a complaint against the city alleging that the policy violated Hoffman's First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion, the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Arizona constitution.

The complaint seeks preliminary and permanent injunctive relief to allow Hoffman to share the gospel at this year's event, and a ruling declaring the policy unconstitutional. In the words of Nate Kellam, senior counsel for First Liberty, censoring a Christian message at a public Christmas event is hostile, unconstitutional and unreasonable; a public street festival is a public place where citizens can talk with each other about different ideas, and the government cannot simply ban religious messages.

The complaint names the city of Tucson and Tucson police officers Matt Alexander and William Leonard, in their individual capacities, as defendants. The city of Tucson said it does not comment on pending litigation. The Tucson Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case's legal process will now await a decision on the policy's validity.