Church's Discrimination Lawsuit Against School District Given Go-Ahead
by Allie Martin
January 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - A federal judge has ruled that a church's discrimination lawsuit against a school district in Washington state can go forward.For four years, the Northview Community Church near Seattle rented space from the Everett School District for Sunday services. Under district policy, religious groups were levied a higher rental fee for school facilities than were secular non-profit groups. The lawsuit alleges that over the course of the rental period, the school district overcharged the church almost $30,000 for use of public school facilities.
Gary McCaleb is senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the church in Northview Community Church v. Everett School District. He says the school district is violating the church's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
"Neutrality means neutrality," the attorney says matter-of-factly. "You do not act in a neutral manner when you discriminate on the face of your policy against religious uses -- that's hostility, that's wrong, and it's a policy that really needs to be changed." Apparently the federal judge who ruled last week that the case could go forward agrees with McCaleb, saying there is strong evidence of discrimination against the church.
McCaleb says the school district has never stated why churches were to be charged a higher rate to rent public facilities. He suggests it may be the result of what he calls "a misguided understanding" of the U.S. Constitution.
"They apparently thought that to avoid an Establishment Clause or 'separation of Church and State' issue, they had to charge religious groups more," he says. "That's simply not true; not under the federal constitution [or] under the Washington [state] constitution either."
According to the Alliance Defense Fund, the school district later changed it policy, but demanded the church turn over membership lists as a condition of access. The court stated such a requirement was undefined and unevenly applied. As McCaleb says: "The church doesn't have to tell the government who its members are before exercising its free speech."
