Court: Ohio library can’t prohibit meeting because of religious elements

A federal court ruled Thursday that an Ohio library violated the Constitution when it denied Citizens for Community Values access to its meeting room on the grounds that the proposed event contained “inherent elements of a religious service.” Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed suit on behalf of CCV against the Upper Arlington Public Library Board of Trustees on March 7.
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Shortly after CCV requested permission to hold a seminar in one of Upper Arlington Public Library’s meeting rooms, which are readily available to community groups, the group was denied access. A library official noted in the denial that CCV’s proposed activities contained “elements of a religious service” and that the group was therefore prohibited from using the room because of the library’s meeting room policy barring “religious services.”

The event is part of a series of meetings held throughout Ohio to explain what current laws and the Bible have to say about Christian political involvement. The meeting was to include prayer, singing, and a time of thanking God for the freedom Americans have to take part in the political process (www.telladf.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4418). The court found the elements to be protected speech and that prohibition on use of the meeting room therefore “constitutes unlawful viewpoint discrimination, and consequently violates Plaintiff’s First Amendment free speech rights.”

+ Opinion — Citizens for Community Values v. Upper Arlington Public Library Board of Trustees (PDF; 94 KB)

Source: Alliance Defense Fund

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.