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A federal judge has ordered New York City Public Schools to allow a Christian church in the Bronx to use its facilities for Sunday worship services.For more than a decade, The Bronx Household of Faith has been embroiled in a legal battle with the public school district over its right to rent school facilities for its weekly services. The New York City Department of Education has fought to keep the church and other local churches from renting school facilities, claiming that to do so violates the supposed "separation of church and state." But now a federal district court has issued a permanent injunction, ordering the school district to allow the Bronx Household of Faith to rent school facilities.Joseph Infranco is an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which represents the church. He says the ruling is consistent with a 2001 Supreme Court ruling (Good News v. Central Milford School District) that said the government must allow religious groups to meet in its facilities under the same terms and conditions that nonreligious groups are allowed to meet."It's a clear, simple constitutional principle," Infranco explains. "It should have been, we think, obvious to all, but essentially the Supreme Court confirmed if the government opens the doors of public facilities to the community, then it's unlawful to discriminate against a religious group. "According to the ADF attorney, for more than a decade New York public school officials have tried to stop churches from using public facilities."The New York school system has shown a ... dogged determination to keep churches off their premises," he says. "And yes, they try to justify it with this so-called separation of church and state, a phrase that we always hasten to add is not even found in the Constitution. But the Supreme Court [in its 2001 ruling] rightly saw through these efforts and saw it to be what it really is, which is antagonism or hostility toward religious speakers or religious speech."Infranco expects the case to be appealed, and says it could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.As in the days of Noah....
