Pro-liberty organizations file briefs supporting ADF client in Calif. library case at U.S. Supreme Court

CLS, Cato Institute, and Eagle Forum file friend-of-the-court briefs in case involving ministry’s equal access to public meeting rooms
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WASHINGTON — Three major pro-liberty organizations filed friend-of-the-court briefs Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a California ministry denied access to library meeting rooms that are open to other groups.  Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund represent Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries and its leader, Hattie Hopkins.

“The government cannot use a double standard to punish Christian churches who merely seek equal and nondiscriminatory access to community facilities; they are not second class to other community groups,” said ADF Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull.  “Once the library opens a room to the community, it is not allowed to single out certain groups and censor their expression simply because their meetings have religious speech.”

The Christian Legal Society, CATO Institute, and Eagle Forum each filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the nation’s highest court in support of equal access for Faith Center.  In 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Faith Center in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, agreeing with ADF that the library’s policy of banning religious groups like Faith Center from meeting in the library community room amounts to viewpoint discrimination and is unconstitutional.

Contra Costa County Library officials in Antioch had forbidden Hopkins and her fellow Christian ministry members from continuing to meet in the library’s community room after the first meeting, citing the county’s policy of prohibiting any “religious services” on the premises.

“This is a very important case because the U.S. Supreme Court will need to answer the question, ‘Does the Constitution allow government officials to act as free speech police, drawing arbitrary lines between “religious speech” and “religious worship”’?” said Bull.  “The decision from the 9th Circuit in 2006 jettisoned three decades of court decisions favoring equal access to public facilities.  We hope our nation’s highest court will uphold religious liberty and reject this unconstitutional form of discrimination.”

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.