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Policy change in NY leads to dismissal of religious access suit

Religious services and activities will no longer be prohibited from taking place in a public building in upstate New York, as part of a change in a previous policy which nearly kept a church from holding its Easter service in the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown, New York.



Jordan Lawrence is one of the public-interest firm legal counsels for Relevant Church, which had requested to rent the Dulles building in March but was denied, and then filed a lawsuit. "The state officials turned them down based on this policy that said basically anybody in the community can meet there except for religious services and religious activities," he says, "and they also invoked the vague 'separation of church and state.'"

After the suit was filed, the state allowed the church access for Easter and, in April, changed its policy that excluded religious use for the office building and meeting rooms. Lawrence says the previous policy was not meeting the supposed requirement of neutrality toward religion and avoiding viewpoint discrimination, required for a separation of church and state.

"It violates the Constitution to treat Christians as second-class citizens when it comes to meeting space," the attorney asserts. "The government is not neutral towards religion when it treats religion worse than everybody else," he says.

Attorneys for Relevant Church have had the case dismissed without prejudice, leaving the door open for refiling of the suit if state officials do not stick with the policy change.