Becket Fund defends release time for South Carolina kidsSep 2, 2009 On August 31, Spartanburg County School District No. 7 filed a motion asking a South Carolina federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group, and two parents. The Foundation\'s claim in Moss v. Spartanburg County School District is that the District has violated the First Amendment by allowing students to voluntarily go off-campus for private religious instruction.
\"The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed this lawsuit as a backdoor way of overturning South Carolina\'s release-time laws,\" says Eric Rassbach, Director of Litigation for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty which represents the County. \"But there\'s no reason to treat the accommodation of religious beliefs--like time off for religious holidays or Sabbath observance--as establishing a state religion.\"
The Spartanburg School District adopted the policy in strict compliance with the South Carolina Released Time Credit Act. Last week the District voted unanimously to retain The Becket Fund to assist local counsel in filing the motion to dismiss, because it believes this case could hinder policy decisions by school boards across South Carolina and the entire country.
\"The U.S. Constitution does not require students to be penalized because they want to go off-campus for private religious instruction,\" Rassbach added. \"In fact, for over half a century the Supreme Court has approved properly designed release-time programs for public schools, which explains why in South Carolina alone thousands of students in dozens of schools voluntarily attend such programs every week. Similar programs exist in the majority of American states and accommodate the personal choices of hundreds of thousands of students. But if the complaint in this case were followed, all those students\' liberties would be threatened.\"
The Becket Fund is a public-interest law firm based in Washington, D.C., and dedicated to defending the free expression of all religious traditions. The Becket Fund will be working in conjunction with the School District\'s South Carolina counsel, Ken Darr of Lyles, Darr and Clark. For more information or to arrange an interview, please call Kristina Arriaga, Communications Director of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty at 703.582.8962.
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