MONTGOMERY, AL — The Foundation for Moral Law, a religious liberties legal organization in Montgomery, Alabama, today filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the Court to hear a case in which the New York City Board of Education refused to rent a school auditorium (left) to a Christian church called the Bronx Household of Faith (http://www NULL.bhof NULL.org/index NULL.html).

Read the Foundation’s brief in Bronx Household of Faith v. NYC Dept. of Education.

Arguing a legal principle known as “equal access,” the Foundation contends that since the school rents its facilities to other organizations, it must rent the facility to religious groups on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, President of the Foundation, said concerning the case,

“Repeatedly, the Supreme Court has said public schools may not discriminate against Christian groups when they rent their auditoriums to outside organizations. By refusing to rent to the Bronx Household of Faith, the New York Board of Education is thumbing its nose at the Supreme Court. We hope the Court will restate its position clearly and forcefully.”

The NYC Board of Education made the long-discredited argument that it must censor religious worship by churches like Bronx Household of Faith to avoid violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Foundation’s brief argues, however, that granting churches the same access to facilities as other groups is certainly not a “law respecting an establishment of religion,” especially as that phrase was understood by the Founding Fathers, who held Sunday worship services in the House of Representatives.