No worship allowed

Appellate court bars renting public school space to church for religious 'worship services'
Emily Belz
posted June 17, 2011

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June that a public school could bar a church from renting its space after hours, while other groups could rent the space if they weren't using it for worship. The court said the school wasn't discriminating against "religious points of view" but simply banning a "type of activity—religious worship services."

"The Establishment Clause is being misunderstood to mean that you cannot accommodate religious private speech as opposed to other private speech," said Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the lawyers for the Bronx, N.Y., church that sought to rent from a local middle school. "They have their dance recitals, Boy Scout meetings, union meetings, worship services. Nothing is transformed. The meeting doesn't work some architectural alchemy on the building." the rest