Ban on ‘Worship Services’ in NYC Schools Survives Free Speech Challenge from Church

A New York City policy prohibiting the use of school property for “religious worship services, or … as a house of worship” does not violate the free speech rights of a Christian congregation in the Bronx seeking to hold Sunday services at a local school, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held June 2 (Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York).

As Judge Pierre N. Leval explained in his majority opinion, by prohibiting the “activity” of worship services in a limited public forum, the policy was merely a content-based regulation ...