[Publib] Religious use of public library

[Backwage at aol.com]

AP Update:  WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused today to expand  the 
rights of church groups, turning down appeals in a pair of  cases.

In the first, the justices rejected a free-speech claim  from an evangelical 
minister from Northern California who wanted to hold worship  services in the 
meeting room of a public library.
 
In the past, the high court has said public officials may not discriminate  
against "religious speech" by, for example, excluding a church group from  
meeting in the evening in a high school auditorium that is open to other  
community organizations.

Lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund, the  Christian Legal Society and the 
National Assn. of Evangelicals had urged the  court to go a step further and 
rule that officials may not exclude "religious  services" from being held in 
public buildings. They backed an appeal filed by  Pastor Hattie Hopkins, who 
wanted to hold prayer and worship services in a  meeting room in a public library 
in Antioch, Calif., near  Oakland.

"Religious worship is not a second-class form of expression that  a 
government may ban from a forum generally open for ... secular expression,"  said 
lawyers for Hopkins and the Faith Center Church Evangelistic  Ministries.

The issue split the federal courts in California. A judge  ruled the library 
must open its meeting room to the evangelical minister, but  the 9th Circuit 
Court of Appeals disagreed in a 2-1 decision.

The 1st  Amendment does not require that the Antioch library be "transformed 
into an  occasional house of worship," said Judge Richard Paez of Los Angeles, 
a Clinton  appointee. There is a difference between "religious speech" and 
"sermon," one  judge commented.

In March, seven judges of the 9th Circuit filed a  dissent. The ruling 
against Hopkins "turned a blind eye to blatant viewpoint  discrimination" by 
"singling out what it calls 'mere religious worship' for  exclusion," wrote Judge Jay 
Bybee, a Bush appointee.

By turning down the  appeal today, the court let stand the 9th Circuit's 
decision.
 
end --------------------  
 
See also:  
_http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/0A893E056B32B153882571EE00794928/$file/0516132.pdf_ 
(http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/0A893E056B32B153882571EE00794928/$file/0516132.pdf) 



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20071001/721172db/attachment.htm