Though it looked for a hot second like it was settled, the ongoing fight over having church groups worship in public schools is far from over. Yesterday a federal court went and upheld an injunction issued Friday that lets the services continue. For now!
The battle over religious groups using school property for services on the weekends has been raging since 1995—but really only in New York, since most other school districts don't seem to mind the practice. "This is resurrection from the dead that is kind of amazing," Jordan Lorence, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, the lawyer for the church that spearheaded the case, the Bronx Household of Faith, told the Times. "We are overjoyed; it gets it through the school year."
The gist of the religious groups argument is that this isn't just about the first amendment, it also is about the right to the free establishment of religion (not that Mayor Bloomberg sees it that way). They'll soon be putting that opinion to the test again as the case moves up the courts. In the meantime, religious services in schools are back on.
