Judge Explains Bronx School Prayer Ruling (favors secularism over religious practice)

[The Straight Story]

Judge Explains Bronx School Prayer Ruling


MANHATTAN (CN) - A federal judge justified her decision to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the city from kicking a church out of a Bronx school, even though the 2nd Circuit overturned her similar ruling late last year.

Bronx Household of Faith and its leaders Robert Hall and Jack Roberts have fought for 16 years to continue meeting Sundays at P.S. 15, and won the sympathy of the Southern District of New York's Chief Judge Loretta Preska.

Preska issued a preliminary injunction in 2007 preventing the city from enforcing a regulation that "No permit shall be granted for the purpose of holding religious worship services, or otherwise using a school as a house of worship."

...
Bronx Household of Faith appeared to have lost its drawn-out legal battle in December, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal of the 2nd Circuit ruling.

Preska argued that the regulation violates the Free Exercise Clause because it favors secularism over religious practice.
"The policy expressly bans 'religious worship services'-conduct for which there is no secular analog," Preska wrote, later adding, "A law is not neutral if its object is to infringe upon or restrict practices because of their religious motivation."

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/24/44167.htm

[immoderate]

1. Religion is bullshit, but people still have rights.

If a public space is leased to a private organization, the government has no right to restrict the (legal) speech of that organization.

--imm

[JDPriestly]

2. I agree, immoderate.

The school is not establishing a religion if it leases a space for money and is willing to lease space to another competing church at the same time on the same day. It is not condoning or agreeing with either church.

But if the school announces to the children or puts up a sign stating that the religious group is holding a services on Sunday as if to support the church's work, then it is probably violating the Constitution.

[immoderate]

3. You betcha!

I hope my title was enough to imply that I wouldn't accept the school community to be involved in any way.

Moreover, I would consider having administrators, teachers or students drawn into promoting the event is unethical, and illegal.

--imm

[Luminous Animal]

4. Actually, that private organization is being subsidized by the public...

they pay below market rate to use the building. According to the NYCLU, some use the public school address as there own.

“But the facts in this case are clear: Churches in New York City are holding worship services Sunday after Sunday, year after year, sending a message to both students and the community at large that the government favors these churches. They are overwhelmingly Christian churches as the vast majority of schools are only regularly available on Sundays, they pay below market rents (as little as $2 an hour to use a classroom), they tend to dominate the schools on the day they use them, and some use the school address on their letterhead and website, while others blanket the neighborhood with postcards listing the school as the church’s address.

“Unless and until these problems are resolved, churches should not be allowed to conduct their regular Sunday worship services in the city’s public schools.”

Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision upholding a New York City Department of Education policy prohibiting worship services in public schools. In upholding the ban, the Second Circuit explained:

“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. The church has made the school the place where it performs its rites, and might well appear to have established itself there. The place has, at least for a time, become the church.”

http://www.nyclu.org/news/judge%E2%80%99s-order-allowing-churches-continue-using-city-schools-worship-disappointment

[immoderate]

5. Hmm. That puts a different light on it.

I'm still not ready to say that banning them is fair. They shouldn't get preferential rates or services, and banning the use of the school address as the official church address could be part of the agreement. It is, after all, a misrepresentation.

I think the solution might be to hire some skeptics group to come in and de-baptize the place after each ritual.

It's still a matter of allocating resources, as well as the various freedoms and rights.


--imm

[pubsrpigs]

6. Judge Loretta Preska

is and has been NOTHING but a Rethug Partisan Hack.