This Land, Your Land

World Net Daily and Christian News Wire are reporting that North Carolina State Parks agreed to settle a lawsuit pertaining to free speech just before it went to trial.

The suit pertains to a group from Grace Baptist Church in Wilson, whose members "played games, went swimming in the ocean, held a picnic and told park visitors about Jesus Christ" at Fort Macon State Park before being told by a ranger that they needed to have a $30 permit to address others at the park.

Libery Counsel, "a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family," sued when Parks officials defended the rule, and just before an injunction hearing last week, the state settled. The settlement "requires the state to go through a formal rule-making process to adopt a constitutional park permit rule and pay attorney's fees and costs," according to World Net Daily.