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Judge issues second injunction allowing NYC churches to meet in schools
New York City churches won back the right to hold Sunday services in the city’s public schools after a federal judge issued an injunction Friday against the city’s no-worship policy.
District Judge Loretta Preska ruled that the Bronx Household of Faith has a good chance of ultimately winning its lawsuit claiming the policy violates freedom of religion. Her ruling will allow all affected churches to resume holding services in schools while the lawsuit against the city, Bronx Household of Faith vs. Board of Education, continues.
In her ruling, Preska wrote, “In this court’s view, losing one’s right to exercise freely and fully his or her religious beliefs is a greater threat to our democratic society than a misperceived violation of the Establishment Clause.”
Preska had issued a similar temporary injunction last week (see “Temporary reprieve,” by Tiffany Owens, Feb. 16), but the city appealed and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the injunction to cover only the Bronx Household of Faith, not the 50 or more other congregations that were worshipping in city schools until this month.
Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Jordon Lorence, who is representing the Bronx congregation in District Court, said the church welcomed the latest decision. “The city can’t single out religious expression and treat it worse than the expression of everybody else,” he said in a statement. “The court’s order allows churches and other religious groups to meet in empty school buildings on weekends just as non-religious groups do while the lawsuit proceeds.” … COMPLETE STORY >>
back to top9 Comments to “Judge issues second injunction allowing NYC churches to meet in schools”
I have not been following this. I need Buzzy!
What makes Bronx Household of Faith different? Is there a contract out there somewhere?
I can’t get to the rest of the story.
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Bronx Household of Faith is the representative church filing the suit against the city and is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund.
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I’ve been thinking this week about how Satan’s minions have been so very busy. The backbones of so many churches are under constant attack. I meet with a pastor’s wife and the head elder’s wife to pray on a routine basis and we’re always amazed at the difficult things one, two or all three of us are going through in a single week–and we’re praying for each other’s personal lives, not the church.
Thank God for the Alliance Defense Fund–always willing to take donations–and for the prescience of the men who organized it some 20 years ago. I’m sure the legal fees are mounting, but at least a lot of this, for the churches, is pro-bono’d so the fees won’t steal even more money from ministry.
At the same time, we should be praying for those fighting these legal battles–it’s a drain on those who already are pouring out their lives for the least of these, or even the most of these in some congregations. In addition to everything else, their attention has to be distracted to deal with a Goliath whose resources seem unending.
Ha! The Lord, however, is bigger, mightier, more loving, just, true and righteous all together.
I’m so glad we can lean on and trust Him!
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Thank you.
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Look at all the time, money and anxiety wasted because of bad policies rising out of hatred and fear for both freedom and faith. It’s all so unnecessary. More reasonable leadership would honor the citizens, defend their rights instead of violating them, protect liberties, reduce unnecessary city costs, bring MORE money into public coffers for better use and so much more.
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NJL – I’m having a hard time finding information about this. The district judge issued a TRO, which applied to New York as a whole, but then, as the article says, the next day the 2nd Circuit modified the order to only give temporary relief to the named plaintiff.
Yesterday, the district judge broadened it back out, possibly based on new U.S. Supreme Court precedent in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. EEOC, 132 S. Ct. 694 (2012). That’s all I’ve been able to glean from a quick look at the first few pages of yesterday’s order. I’d read the whole thing but I have to run an errand right now. I’ll read it later and get back to you. If you want to read it yourself, here’s the link:
http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/cases/show.php?db=special&id=155
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NJL – it’s a 50-page opinion. I surmise, then, that this is the “opinion to follow” stated in the previous order granting a TRO. This opinion goes further and grants a prelminary injunction. However, I believe it was issued on the same day that the 2nd Circuit issued its order, so my guess is that the two orders were issued at approximately the same time. If that’s correct, then the City is now going back to the 2nd circuit to have them clarify that their order narrowing the scope of relief applies as well to the 50-page ruling. The plaintiff’s only possible “trump card” in that event would be to point to the new U.S. Supreme Court case relied upon by the district court and say, essentially, that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision trumps the 2nd circuit (which of course will be true if the case is on point).
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Bravo. Anybody who thinks that allowing a church to rent a school room for services when there are no students present is the same as establishing a national religion is nuts.
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50 or more churches are renting space, so which one will be established as our National religion?
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