A federal appeals court should endorse a permanent block on New York City’s prohibition of religious worship in public schools because the policy violates the First Amendment, the Southern Baptist Convention’s religious liberty entity and others have said in a legal brief.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) joined local and national religious organizations in an Oct. 10 friend-of-the-court brief calling for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to embrace a federal judge’s injunction. The brief, organized by the Christian Legal Society (CLS), says the NYC Board of Education policy barring churches and other faith groups from meeting in schools transgresses First Amendment clauses protecting the free exercise of religion.
The policy not only bars religious free exercise, but it “requires the government to discriminate against a religious practice as if it were disfavored, rather than expressly protected, under our Constitution,” according to the brief. “It requires public officials and courts to entangle themselves in distinguishing between ‘religious worship services’ and other ‘religious speech and conduct’ and to discriminate among various sects in doing so.”
The Second Circuit ruled in 2011 that the city’s ban was constitutional, prompting a crisis for dozens of churches that used public schools for their worship services. Some moved their meetings to other facilities, but a federal judge’s February ruling enabled others to continue using school buildings.
(BP)
Share with others: