Supreme Court won't protect religious worship at schools

The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed Monday that New York City can prohibit religious groups from holding weekend or evening worship services at public schools.

By rejecting to hear the appeal of evangelical group Bronx Household of Faith, the high court effectively lets stand the June ruling of a federal appeals court that worship services at public schools violate First Amendment rights regarding the separation of church and state, and in which a judge opined, "When worship services are performed in a place, the nature of the site changes. The site is no longer simply a room in a school being used temporarily for some activity."

Bronx Household of Faith, which Associated Press reports "has held Sunday services at Public School 15 in the Bronx since 2002," filed suit against New York City in 2009. At that time 60 religious groups were holding after-hours worship services at New York City public schools, and those groups were permitted to continue worshipping at schools pending the outcome of litigation.

However, the New York Times wrote that Monday's "decision supported the city's view that letting churches conduct religious services in schools could be seen as the kind of endorsement of religion that violated the First Amendment's establishment clause. … After the Supreme Court's decision, the city said that Feb. 12, 2012, would be the last day that churches and other groups — of all faiths — could use schools for worship services."

Christian legal group Alliance Defense Fund issued a press release Monday in which its senior counsel Jordan Lorence said, "Churches and other religious groups should be able to meet in public buildings on the same terms as other community groups. They should not be excluded simply because of the religious nature of their speech. The Supreme Court's decision not to review this case is befuddling because it has already ruled multiple times in other equal access cases that the First Amendment protects religious worship the same as secular speech. ADF will continue to stand for this constitutional principle."

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