Supreme Court may weigh in on religious services in NYC schools

[rug]

U.S. Supreme Court set to announce whether it will hear the case

BY Corinne Lestch
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, November 28 2011, 12:02 PM

The U.S. Supreme Court will announce Monday if it will hear a case to determine whether churches can hold worship services in city public schools.

Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York has churned through the court system for about 16 years. In the latest ruling in June, an appeals court decided that the 60 city churches cannot use public school space - even though congregations worship when school is not in session.

“If the Court grants review, it is likely that we will win and the city’s policy will be invalidated,” said Jordan Lorence, a lawyer for Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical church in University Heights. “It’s a good vehicle to decide the big question that’s raised in our case: whether religious worship by private groups is fully protected under the First Amendment.”

Many churches use school auditoriums and gymnasiums because the rent is affordable, and they have no space elsewhere.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/supreme-court-weigh-religious-services-nyc-schools-article-1.983446

The case will be conferenced for certioari Friday.

http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/11-386.htm

[Angry Dragon]

1. I honestly do not see what the problem is.

The pay rent for the space, do not preach to anyone that does not want to be there.
And for the record I am totally against religion in public schools
unless it is in a religion class teaching about all religions.

The same would hold true for renting voting spaces from churches.

[Major Nikon]

4. Generally I agree, but I do see a couple of potential problems

One is that the rent needs to be reasonable. I can see the potential for collusion between church officials and school management that would create situations where the church gets the space for $1. I'm not really sure how you could guarantee this doesn't happen.

The other problem is that if you let the Christers in, you must have equal access to all religions and atheist groups as well. I can see the potential for abuse here as well by school officials who exclude certain groups.

[struggle4progress]

2. If the schools make the space generally available for rental in off-hours, they'll need

a really really compelling governmental interest if they want to enforce a blanket policy against renting the space to religious groups

[MarkCharles]

3. Will the NYC schools rent to atheists?

Same terms, same hours, same space, same price.

Yes?

Then there is no issue.

As long as the city of NY will open their facilities for rental when not being used for public education, and will do so for atheists and evangelicals, and will not allow either group to "propagate" their message during public school hours to people in public schools or grounds for public school purposes, then I see no problem.

[NMMNG]

5. If they rent out their facilities to other groups

I don't see a problem. If they only do it for churches/religious groups it's obvious favoritism that must be addressed.