Federal Appeals Court rules churches can rent school property for worship

Nov 30, 1999

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed a lower court ruling that the Bronx Household of Faith was entitled to an injunction barring the New York City Board of Education from enforcing a rule that says churches may not rent space in public schools. Circuit Judges Cardamone and Katzmann, in their majority opinion, observed that when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled an earlier Second Circuit decision in Good News Club v. Milford Central School (2001), it changed the legal landscape in which Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education must be judged.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty had filed an amicus curiae brief with the Second Circuit in this case, pointing out that "from the earliest days to the present, the U.S. Constitution has been understood to allow the use of government buildings for religious speech and worship," and that "federal government buildings were regularly used on weekends for religious services from soon after the capitol was moved to Washington in 1800 until after the Civil War." Such a policy, The Becket Fund pointed out, "is an enduring part of the broader American tradition of accommodation of religious exercise without regard to denomination. Not only is this accommodation salutary . . . it is mandatory in circumstances where the government opens its facilities to secular expressive uses."

In a dissent from today's decision, Circuit Judge Miner concluded with a "response" to the Becket Fund brief, arguing that while "Jefferson is said to have attended services in the hall of the House of Representatives," he was "a strong supporter of popular sovereignty and states' rights . . . and an Athiest (at least so considered by some)."

The Bronx Household of Faith began its battle to win the right to rent space in the Anne Cross Mersereau Middle School for Sunday morning meetings back in 1994. When the school refused, citing the no-church rule, the church sued. In 1996, a federal district court held that the rule was "reasonable." Bronx Household of Faith appealed, and in 1997, the Second Circuit affirmed that decision. After the Supreme Court's ruling on Good News Club in 2001, the church applied again, and was once again turned down, leading to the latest litigation (" Bronx II ").

A detailed description of the case and the text of today's Second Circuit decision can be found at www.becketfund.org.