The ongoing legal battle for equal access of churches to meet in New York City’s public schools returns to court Monday. Currently, churches and other religious groups are meeting in NYC’s vacant schools due to a court injunction Alliance Defending Freedom won last June against NYC’s policy prohibiting worship services from the public schools.   Alliance Defending Freedom has been representing a small church, Bronx Household of Faith in this matter since 1995.

On Monday, we will be appearing before a panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which will be sitting in lower Manhattan.  NYC school officials have appealed, arguing that the policy is constitutional, that the appeals court should dissolve the injunction and free them to boot out the churches.  Alliance Defending Freedom will be arguing strongly that the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty requires NYC to allow the churches to stay.  We ask for your prayers for God’s help and mercy as we go forward in this case.

Actor Alec Baldwin of the television show 30 Rock and the movie Hunt for Red October, is seriously considering a run for Mayor of New York City, according to his brother Billy Baldwin.  During an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan last Tuesday night, Billy Baldwin said Alec’s possible candidacy is “very real,” and that Alec is ”very committed and extremely  bright and knowledgeable and I think he could do it and he could run.”

The race for Mayor in New York City could affect religious liberty there because the Mayor directs the NYC Department of Education, which has a policy banning religious groups from conducting worship services during non-school hours. The Mayor has the authority to order an immediate repeal of the Department of Education policy.   The current mayor, Michael Bloomberg has refused repeated requests by City Council members and local pastors to reverse the anti-worship service policy.

ADF is challenging the policy in court in the Bronx Household of Faith case, and won a permanent injunction against the policy last week.  We expect the NYC DOE to appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  The question of whether the next Mayor of NYC can alter the policy may be moot if we successfully defeat the policy in court.

We would welcome a victorious resolution of this case by the Mayor ordering the repeal of the policy.  Although the election for the new mayor of NYC is not until November 2013, it is important to ask the candidates for their position on ending the ban on worship services.  If Alec Baldwin does run for Mayor, we hope he shows true support for religious liberty and the right of all people to worship the true Rock of Ages.

Bronx Household of Faith won a permanent injunction June 29 allowing private groups to conduct worship services in empty public schools during non-school hours.  Judge Loretta Preska issued the order, ruling that New York City’s ban on worship services in the public schools violates the church’s rights under the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  This excellent decision rightly found that when the government uses religion as the factor that disqualifies a community group from using a school building, the government violates the unique protections the First Amendment grants to religious liberty.

New York City will likely appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  It may be more challenging to convince the Second Circuit to agree with the District Court’s ruling in favor of religious liberty, because the Second Circuit has ruled both for and against the policy in the past.  The Second Circuit in February said that it would rule before school starts in early September.  If the Second Circuit reverses and upholds the ban on worship services, Alliance Defending Freedom will likely appeal again to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This means that religious groups will continue to meet in NYC public schools on the same terms and conditions as other groups, at least for the remainder of the summer.

Please continue to pray that this ruling is upheld and support the Alliance Defending Freedom as we continue to fight.

Hope renewed: Weekend worship services will continue at NYC schools
6/29/2012 News Release Federal court issues permanent order protecting equal access rights

NEW YORK — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys won a permanent injunctionFriday that allows churches and other faith groups to continue to meet in New York City public school buildings for worship services after hours.“Churches that have been helping communities for years can continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence, who argued before the court on June 1. “The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet for worship services in empty school buildings on weekends on the same terms as other groups. ADF will continue to defend this constitutionally protected right if the city chooses to continue using taxpayer money to evict the very groups that are selflessly helping the city’s communities, including the public schools themselves.”

Churches meeting in New York City public schools for worship services have fed the poor, have assisted in rehabilitating drug addicts and gang members, have helped rebuild marriages and families, and have provided for the disabled. The churches have also helped the public schools themselves by volunteering to paint the interiors of inner-city schools; donating computers, musical instruments, and air conditioners; and providing effective after-school programs to help all students with their studies.

“There is no reason to exclude worship services from these empty school buildings, especially when the school allows all other community groups to meet,” Lorence explained. “Why exclude churches that are helping their neighbors in so many significant ways?”

In February, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary order that allowed Bronx Household of Faith and other religious groups to conduct worship services in schools while the ADF lawsuit against the city proceeded. The new order makes the preliminary order permanent.

The permanent injunction is part of a 17-year legal battle in Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York. The city has been trying to eject worship services from their public school meeting places under the claim that their presence violates the U.S. Constitution, but the court Friday disagreed with the city’s policy, Chancellor’s Regulation D-180.

“Having considered the latest evidence and the parties’ respective arguments, the Court determines that its reasons for granting Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction were sound and that implementation of Ch. Reg. D-180 violates both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause…,” the court’s order states. “Defendants are permanently enjoined from enforcing Ch. Reg. D180 so as to deny Plaintiffs’ application or the application of any similarly-situated individual or entity to rent space in the Board’s public schools for meetings that include religious worship.”

The Bronx Household of Faith case returns to the U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan for a hearing on Friday morning, June 1 at 10:30 am in Courtroom 12A of Chief Judge Loretta Preska.  The federal courthouse is located at 500 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, near City Hall and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Bronx Household of Faith has filed a motion asking the District Court to grant a permanent injunction against the New York City Department of Education’s policy barring religious groups from conducting worship services in the public schools during nonschool hours.  New York City is asking the Court to uphold the policy.

Last February, Judge Preska issued a preliminary injunction against the policy, so churches and other religious groups are now meeting in NYC public schools on the same terms as other community groups.  The District Court should issue a ruling by mid-June, according to the order last February 29 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  If the District Court grants the motion for a permanent injunction, New York City will immediately appeal to the Second Circuit.  That appeals court has stated that it will rule on the permanent injunction by the time school starts in the fall.  Whichever side loses at the Second Circuit will likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So what does this all mean?  It means that churches are currently meeting in NYC public schools, and will likely continue to meet there until at least the end of the summer.  The big wild card is what will the Second Circuit do with this case.  If it rules against the churches like it did one year ago when it upheld the policy, then we would likely appeal quickly to the U.S. Supreme Court.  That court declined to hear our appeal on our free speech claim last December.  Would it view our free exercise of religion claim differently?  We may get an opportunity to see.  Of course, if the Second Circuit agrees that the policy violates the Free Exercise Clause, then the churches would remain meeting in the schools.  This case has several twists and turns yet to come, so stay tuned, and continue to pray for God’s mercy on the churches.

But the next step in the proceedings is the court hearing in Manhattan Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.  The court hearing is open to the public, so anyone may attend.  And we can rejoice that at least for now, religious liberty prevails in New York City.