[Publib] New OIF blog post: Supreme Court Refuses To Review Library Policy Denying Access to Groups Conducting Religious Worship

[Jonathan Kelley]

Supreme Court Refuses To Review Library Meeting Room Policy Denying
Access to Groups Conducting Religious Worship

http://blogs.ala.org/oif.php?p=2301&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals opinion, Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v.
Glover, that affirmed a northern California library's decision to deny a
church use of its meeting rooms for religious worship services.

The Faith Center Church filed its lawsuit after the Antioch Library in
Contra Costa County in California barred the church from using its
meeting rooms. The library instituted the ban after the church
circulated flyers inviting the public to join it at the library for
religious worship. The library's meeting room policy prohibits use of
its meeting rooms for "religious services or activities."

While the district court held that the restriction on access for
"religious services" was unconstitutional, the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals overturned the lower court's decision and upheld the library's
policy. The Ninth Circuit held that the library had a legitimate
interest in screening and excluding meeting room activities that could
interfere with the library’s primary mission of providing a quiet
place for reading, and that the library could reasonably conclude that a
worship service could undermine the library’s purpose of making itself
available to the whole community by disrupting the library and
alienating other users.

The Ninth Circuit cautioned that the library could not prohibit
religious groups from engaging in other religious activities, including
reading, Bible discussions, Bible instruction, praying, singing, sharing
testimony, and discussing political or social issues. They noted that it
would be difficult for a library to distinguish between these kinds of
activities and a worship service, but when a religious group
self-identifies its activity as a religious worship service, as Faith
Center did in its flyers, the library could apply its policy and exclude
the group from its meeting rooms.

Theresa Chmara, general counsel for the Freedom to Read Foundation,
offers guidance for libraries that may be reviewing their own meeting
room policies in the aftermath of this decision:

    * the decision applies only to the Ninth Circuit [California,
Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii,
Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands] and appears to be a departure
from the interpretation of other courts on use of meeting rooms by
religious groups;
    * ultimately the majority opinion relied on Faith Center Church’s
own description of its meeting as a "worship" service and failed to
address a dissenting judge's concern that librarians cannot -- and
should not -- be trying to make these determinations;
    * no court has held that the First Amendment’s Establishment
Clause requires libraries to prohibit meeting room use by religious
groups engaged in worship;
    * if a library within the Ninth Circuit chooses as a matter of
policy to exclude "religious worship," the library could open itself up
to "as applied" legal challenges if it starts trying to determine when a
group has crossed the line from a "meeting" to a "worship service."

Legal counsel for the plaintiff, Faith Center Church, say the church
will continue to pursue its legal remedies by asking the lower courts
for a permanent injunction (the Supreme Court was asked to review a
temporary injunction).

Anyone with questions about the lawsuit or meeting room policies can
call or write the Office for Intellectual Freedom for assistance. OIF
can be reached at oif at ala.org or 800-545-2433, ext. 4223.

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Free People Read Freely ®
Jonathan Kelley
Administrative Assistant
Freedom to Read Foundation
50 E. Huron St.
Chicago, IL  60611
(312) 280-4226/ fax (312) 280-4227
jokelley at ala.org