BJC, others ask court to ensure access to schools
___By Kenny Byrd
___Associated Baptist Press
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--Nine religious organizations want the nation's highest court to send a clear signal that school districts may not bar religious groups from after-hours use of facilities that are otherwise open to community groups.
___In a friend-of-the-court brief, the Baptist Joint Committee and eight other groups argue that denying access only to religious groups violates the First Amendment.
___The religious groups want the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate a New York school district's policy that barred the use of its facilities by individuals or organizations "for religious purposes."
___The Good News Club, a non-denominational Christian youth group, challenged the policy when denied after-hours use of a facility in Milford, N.Y.
___A trial court and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the school district, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in October to review the matter. The appeals court said the club's activities go beyond simply teaching moral values from a religious viewpoint and "fall clearly on the side of religious instruction and prayer."
___In urging the high court to reverse the lower rulings, the religious groups argue that by singling out religious groups for adverse treatment, the policy violates their free-speech rights.
___The constitutionally required separation of church and state neither requires nor justifies the exclusion of religious groups, the brief argues.
___"This case ... is about private actors engaging in religious speech in a public forum after the school day at programs sponsored and run by a private community group," the brief states.
___The religious groups further argue that permitting after-hours access for students with parental permission to attend the Good News Club would not create an impression of school sponsorship in the minds of elementary-school students.
___"It defies common sense to conclude that, while young children might view a religious organization's use of public property as an endorsement from the state, they would not also perceive the organization's exclusion from that facility as state hostility toward religion," the brief states.
___In addition, the brief argues that by singling out religion for inferior treatment without proving a compelling governmental interest, the policy violates the free exercise rights of the Good News Club.
___Perhaps most troubling, the brief argues, is the policy's "requirement that state officials scrutinize proposed religious events to decide if they are 'merely' the presentation of a religious viewpoint or if they consist of forbidden religious instruction or worship." That process, the brief states, impermissibly entangles church and state.
___"It's really important for religious groups who believe in the separation of church and state to tell the court that this practice does not violate that principle," said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee. "As long as access is provided after hours without school sponsorship, religious groups should not be discriminated against."
The Baptist Standard
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