Posted on 09/20/2006 5:15:17 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Government libraries can block religious groups from worshipping in public meeting rooms, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The decision overturns a lower court order allowing a Christian group to pray in a Contra Costa County library.
The Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, which initially was rejected from holding prayer services at the county's Antioch branch, had won a court order allowing them to pray in meeting rooms open to other groups. A federal judge said it had a First Amendment right of religion to use the public's facilities.
But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling Wednesday in a 2-1 decision.
"Prohibiting Faith Center's religious worship services from the Antioch meeting room is a permissible exclusion of a category of speech," Judge Richard Paez ruled.
In dissent, Judge Richard Tallman said the county went too far.
"Rather than adopting a policy of neutrality and placing reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on every group that uses the library meeting rooms, the county has gone to great lengths to exclude a non-disruptive community group based on the views it wishes to express," Tallman wrote.
Contra Costa County had appealed the lower court's decision, arguing that religious groups have a right of free access to its public library facilities in the Bay Area, but allowing prayer services would mean taxpayers would be subsidizing religious exercises.
"Religious worship services is a category of speech that we are allowed to exclude," said Kelly Flanagan, a county attorney. "Had we said Christians can use this but Jews can't, that would be discrimination."
The Alliance Defense Fund, which is defending the church group, called the decision "astounding."
"Religious people ... whether they're Jewish, Muslim or Christian or any other faith under the sun, this is not what the First Amendment was intended to do, to authorize censorship of speech in public," said Gary McCaleb, an ADF attorney.
The group, he said, would consider appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court or asking the appeals court to reconsider.
In December, the Bush administration weighed in on the case, filing a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the church. The administration said the government "has an interest in enforcement of First Amendment principles providing equal treatment of persons irrespective of their religious beliefs."
The county's policy allows the public to use free meeting rooms at its libraries, but prohibits "religious services." The Sierra Club, Narcotics Anonymous and even the East Contra Costa Democratic Club have used the county's library facilities.
The case began in 2004 when Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries told the county that it wished to hold a "prayer, praise and worship" service that would be open to the public. The group held one session before the county banned it from having others.
The church group sued, demanding equal treatment and claiming it was being discriminated against because of its speech.
The case is Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, 05-16132.
Allowing a religious group to meet is 'taxpayers supporting it.' Gee, I guess it's ok for the taxpayers to support the DEMONrats.
Hey, give the 9th Circuit a break here -- they're dead SERIOUS about defending their title as the most overturned federal appeals court in the land. They figured this would be an easy one for the USSC to reverse, perhaps even summarily without full oral argument.
Mmmmmmmm....the 9th Circus judges will not be able to overule God kicking them out of His library.
Also, for those of you who are champing at the bit to dump Chafee in RI, let this be an ongoing lesson to you. The only vote of his that really matters in the Senate is his vote to organize the Senate under GOP control. That way, the gavel for the Judiciary Committee stays in GOP hands for the selection of new federal judges over the next two years. . .
Time to send in a donation to the ACLJ.
A group should go in, posing as muslims, and hold a 'meeting' discussing the koran. prayer rugs and all. hold it every thursday.. see what they do then
your comment aside and duly noted, if i Had a choice between losing Chafee or Specter,, oh man, that's a tough one.
And you must let them look at porn on the computer.
I can see where they might prohibit a certain level of noise-making. It is, after all, a library. But that does not at all appear to be the reasoning here.
Un-freakin-believable.
Yet another reason why the local lending library is becoming a dinosaur. Makes me glad I voted against funding the rebuilding of the Walnut Creek branch of the county library earlier this year.
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