Court Refuses Case on NYC Ban on Churches

This is disappointing. The United States Supreme Court has refused to hear a case concerning clear religious discrimination, according to The Blaze.

As you probably know public schools are often used by other groups after hours and on weekends. One of the groups that wanted to use the space was small churches that couldn’t afford their own buildings. But New York City decided they’ll allow other groups to use the schools except the churches because…the separation of church and state.

I did a story last month on a town not allowing a rosary to be said on public ground. That was asinine and the town realized it and overturned themselves because it was so clearly discrimination.

If they let some groups use the school after hours the government shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate against religious groups. The separation of church and state shouldn’t mean the state banning the Church.

The Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear the case, leaving NYC’s ban in place. It wasn’t like all the other courts agreed. A federal appeals court ruled with NYC which overruled a district court decision’s for the church.

And this ruling doesn’t just affect one church. According to the Blaze, about 60 congregations used public schools for their religious services.

I can’t imagine why the Court would refuse to hear this case because for me it’s so clearly discrimination.

As all readers of CMR know, the whole separation of church and state thing was kinda’ made up and pulled out of a letter from Thomas Jefferson. It’s not in the Constitution. It’s not in the Declaration of Independence. It’s in a freakin’ constituent letter.

But somehow this has become codified and used as a cudgel against religion. Especially worrisome is that the state increasingly grows and its tendrils reach into every area of our lives, crowding out religion from anywhere and everywhere.

We’ll keep an eye on this situation.