permission is neither establishment nor endorsement

[acroyear]

Available for one group MUST mean available for all.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Another Library and Religion Case:

These keep cropping up around the country and I can't help but wonder who is giving the legal advice. A library in Ohio had a policy allowing their meeting rooms to be used by community groups and non-profits, but not allowing them to be used by any religious group. A federal judge has, yet again, ruled that this is unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. And it is.

At some point, the attorneys who advise these government agencies need to be held accountable for their advice. This is not even remotely controversial as a matter of law. The Supreme Court ruling in Lamb's Chapel was unanimous, for crying out loud, and it would still be unanimous if the case was heard today. If a government building is available for use by outside groups, that has to include religious groups. Why that is so difficult for so many schools and libraries and other agencies is beyond me.

It's not just libraries. It's been happening with schools and school systems as well that keep thinking they can't make their rooms available for religious activity, or worse still, will permit Christians yet go out of their way to make draconian rules to keep Muslim, Jewish, and Wiccan groups out.

Worse still is the viewpoint discrimination shown against the students when they'll permit after-school prayer groups but won't permit GSA clubs.

Worst of all is when they'll not permit ANY after-school clubs, including prayer groups, simply because they don't want to have to permit GSA clubs.  To "hate gays" so much as to not permit ANY student activities shows such an insane repression of free thought as to make you wonder why they call themselves "educators".  Indoctrinators, more like.

BTW, they lose every single one of these cases, the precedent so clearly defined, often at the costs of thousands of tax dollars, but it continues over and over again.  As Ed writes, who the hell is advising them on their legal responsibilities.

Or are they so stupid (Dover, PA, anyone?) as to totally ignore the advice of their lawyers...

Comments

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

GSA clubs?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Gay-Straight Alliance - clubs that actively work to educate and inform and try to put a stop to gay student harassment, but are often (and i mean OFTEN) called "sex clubs" by ignorant (and homophobic) administrators.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was wondering why schools wouldn't allow "Government Services Agency" clubs. :)