Colorado Library Learns Lesson, Quietly Settles Out of Court
by Allie Martin
September 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Christian law firm has settled a dispute with a Colorado library that rejected an application to use a community meeting room.
Earlier this year, Florida-based Liberty Counsel applied to use the community room of the Woodland Park Library near Denver for an informative meeting on the biblical perspective of marriage and homosexuality. The application also explained that the meeting would include prayer and scripture reading.
However, the request was rejected because of a standing policy that says meetings that are religious or political in nature must also present a balanced viewpoint. The library director, says Liberty Counsel, stated that someone who could present an opposing viewpoint on marriage would have to be invited to the meeting.
Erik Stanley, an attorney with Liberty Counsel, says such a policy is unconstitutional. According to Stanley, a "special disability" cannot be placed on religious speech. "When a library has a community meeting room, it should be open to all on equal terms," he explains.
Woodland Park Library now understands that, says Stanley, and has repealed its policy and replaced it with one that no longer includes viewpoint discrimination. The library also has agreed to pay attorney fees and court costs in the settlement, which has been submitted to the federal district court in Denver for approval.
The legal group says this battle over discriminatory library policies is nothing new. "We have been very successful throughout the country in having these library policies stricken," explains Stanley. "In fact, over the last two years the American Library Association has been urging libraries to get rid of these policies."
But according to Stanley, not all local libraries are heeding the warning. "I still have a stack of these [discriminatory] library policies on my desk," the attorney offers. "The libraries need to get the message that they cannot prevent religious speech from taking place in the community meeting rooms -- and that they have to treat everybody's speech on equal terms."
Otherwise, says Liberty Counsel, those libraries should expect legal consequences.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
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