Victory: California City Votes To Remove Unconstitutional Provision Banning “Religious Worship” From Its Facility Use Policy

Earlier this summer we informed you of the legal action we took against the City of Manhattan Beach, California, because of its unconstitutional policy prohibiting residents from renting city-owned facilities for religious gatherings. The prior policy stated:

The Facility Reservation Policy governs use of public facilities such as community center rooms, picnic shelters, swimming pools, basketball courts and sports fields that are available to the public for civic, social, educational, athletic, cultural activities and limited commercial use. The purpose of this policy is to provide use regulations and application and scheduling procedures to accommodate residents and individuals who would like to use City facilities. Facilities will not be used for religious worship or other religious purposes, political fundraisers, political advocacy or other partisan campaign events, or the sale of goods or services. Candidate or ballot issue forums that present all opposing viewpoints may be accepted.

Our client asked to reserve a city facility for a religious gathering to sing worship songs and watch a sermon on television. Relying on their unlawful policy, city officials repeatedly emphasized they could not and would not permit our client to use city facilities for any “religious purposes.” Meanwhile, residents were permitted to use the same facilities for non-religious purposes. Such a broad prohibition preventing any religious gathering solely because it’s religious clearly violates the First Amendment.

We sent a demand letter to the city making clear that this policy is blatantly unconstitutional. As we previously explained:

The First Amendment limits the government’s ability to censor free speech and religious expression. The First Amendment especially protects religious speech and expression. As the Supreme Court has said, “[P]rivate religious speech, far from being a First Amendment orphan, is as fully protected under the Free Speech Clause as secular private expression.” The government cannot suppress speech solely because it is religious.

Religious groups attempting to use government facilities open to the public maintain their First Amendment rights. For example, in Widmar v. Vincent, the Supreme Court held that a university policy denying a religious student club access to its facilities on equal terms violated the First Amendment. Moreover, the Supreme Court unanimously held in Lamb’s Chapel (a case argued and won by the ACLJ) that where the government opens up public facilities to a variety of groups, religious groups must be treated equally under the First Amendment.

After sending our demand letter and receiving no response, the ACLJ began preparing a complaint and planned to file a lawsuit against the city for violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The city subsequently reached out, and following discussions with the city’s attorneys, Manhattan Beach indicated that it would begin the process to amend the policy and remove the prohibition on religious uses. We’re happy to report that during the Manhattan Beach City Council’s August meeting, the amendment was considered and passed. This is a tremendous victory for our client.

By a unanimous vote, the city removed the language banning all “religious worship or other religious purposes.” As you will see on the city’s website today, the new policy now reads:

The Facility Reservation Policy governs use of public facilities such as community center rooms, picnic shelters, swimming pools, basketball courts and sports fields that are available to the public for civic, social, educational, athletic, cultural activities and limited commercial use. The purpose of this policy is to provide use regulations and application and scheduling procedures to accommodate residents and individuals who would like to use City facilities. Facilities will not be used for political fundraisers, political advocacy or other partisan campaign events, or the sale of goods or services. Candidate or ballot issue forums that present all opposing viewpoints may be accepted.

We are pleased that we were able to achieve this victory for our client as well as all other residents of Manhattan Beach wanting to reserve a city facility for religious purposes. The ACLJ will continue to defend those who fall victim to government censorship and discrimination.