School District’s Policy Barring Use of School for Worship Services Upheld by Court

In a recent case, Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York, a church filed suit against the board of education of New York alleging that its refusal to permit a church to use school facilities for religious worship services violated the First Amendment. The board had adopted a policy which prohibited the use of school property for religious worship services or otherwise using a school as a house of worship.

The right to exercise free speech on government property depends on the kind of forum where the speech occurs. The Supreme Court has identified three kinds of forums: (1) the traditional public forum; (2) the designated public forum and (3) the limited public forum. The court noted that the school district was a limited public forum because it restricts access to certain speakers and subjects. As a limited public forum, the district is allowed to restrict speech only on the basis of reasonable, viewpoint neutral rules.

The court concluded that the school district’s policy prohibiting “religious worship services” does not constitute viewpoint discrimination because the policy allows the expression of all points of view. The exclusion applied only to the conduct of a specific type of activity, namely the conduct of worship services, and not to the free expression of religious views associated with it.