Opinion
No. 97-9235.
Argued: January 11, 1999.
January 25, 1999.
Plaintiffs challenged on First Amendment grounds the defendants' denial of their application for permission to use public school facilities for the purpose of conducting religious worship services. The district court (Charles S. Haight, Jr., Judge) granted summary judgment for defendants, holding that the facilities at issue were limited public forums by virtue of N Y Educ. Law § 414 and school district policy and practice, and that the district's exclusion of religious worship services from school facilities did not amount to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination under First Amendment. We affirm.
Mark N. Troobnick, American Center for Law and Justice (Jay Alan Sekulow, of counsel), Washington, D.C., for Appellants.
Stuart D. Smith, Office of the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York (Jeffrey D. Friedlander, Acting Corporation Counsel, and Larry A. Sonnenshein, of counsel), New York, New York, for Defendants-Appellees.
Martin Bienstock, Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York (Dennis C. Vacco, Attorney General; John McConnell, Deputy Solicitor General; Thomas D. Hughes, Assistant Solicitor General; Jeffrey I. Slonim, Assistant Attorney General, of counsel), New York, New York, for Intervenor-Defendant-Appellee.
Kimberlee W. Colby, Center for Law Religious Freedom, Christian Legal Society, Annandale, Virginia, for Amicus Curiae Christian Legal Society.
Jay Worona, General Counsel, New York State School Boards Association, Inc., Albany, New York, for Amicus Curiae New York State School Boards Association, Inc.
BEFORE: WINTER, Chief Judge, VAN GRAAFEILAND, and KEARSE, Circuit Judges.
We affirm for substantially the reasons stated by Judge Haight in the decision below. See Full Gospel Tabernacle v. Community School District 27, 979 F. Supp. 214 (S.D.N.Y. 1997).