In a story carried by Fox News, Eric Love says his free speech rights were violated outside the Shaky Beats music festival, which drew thousands in May to downtown Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park.
Love is asking a judge to decide whether the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and its police force can forbid preaching from the surrounding sidewalks. The authority oversees the park, which was created for the 1996 Olympic Games.
The authority quoted a Georgia law that allows it to ban solicitation and other activities on public sidewalks and streets bordering the park when large events are held. However, a lawyer representing Love maintains that it amounts to an unreasonable ban on free speech.
At the May concert, Love was on a sidewalk (pavement) outside the park near the entrance when he and two friends were confronted by the authority's police officers, he said.
The complaint states that they were told they needed a permit to express their views on the sidewalk, but were ineligible for one and would have to move.
One of Love's two friends was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle but later was released, Love's lawyer wrote.
Representatives of the authority and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who is named as a defendant, did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment