By refusing to hear a case stemming from Contra Costa County, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning upheld the right of governments to block religious groups from using libraries for prayer.
The high court let stand a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that Faith Center Evangelistic Ministries cannot use public meeting rooms for prayer and Bible study in the county’s public library in Antioch. WTOP and San Jose Mercury News report.
I completely disagree!
I disagree with the Supreme Court. Someone please let them know, I’m sure they will be quite upset.
Pray where ya want to, just don’t make other people do it too.
I prayed all the time at the library, usually that the clock would speed up and I could get out of there.
Meeting activity shouldn’t matter
My gut reaction is that this is indeed a freedom of expression question.
So long as what is expressed in the room does not impinge on the freedoms and/or rights of others (especially those outside the room)… Why should we care?
To me the challenge would be crafting room policy that is fair to everyone (emphasis on everyone).
Supreme Court not hearing a case
When the Supreme Court does not hear a case it is not really correct to say that it was “upheld”. The Supreme Court is very picky in the cases is chooses. It is possible that the legal issue in the supposedly “upheld” case will be looked at in another case in the future and the court will rule against it. The court sometimes waits for a case that has the fact pattern they want. Also they can only take so many cases at a time. The court may want to hear a certain case but has cases that it needs to hear first.
More questions than answers here!
This article raises more questions than it answers! What are this library’s meeting room policies? Was the meeting withing these policies? If the library’s policies do in fact bar religious groups, why?