FFRF settles Satanic Temple discrimination lawsuit with Memphis-area school
- Thread starter THE_DEVIL
- Start date
Now, the Shelby County Board of Education has agreed to make amends in a number of ways.
The board will pay over $15,000 to resolve the suit. That includes $14,845 in attorneys’ fees and costs to FFRF and cooperating counsel. The board will also pay one dollar for nominal damages to The Satanic Temple and $196.71 for various fees previously paid by the Temple in connection with rental reservations that had not yet been refunded.
Further, the Shelby County Board of Education has agreed not to discriminate against the organization with regard to its requests to rent and use school board property at Chimneyrock Elementary School; the Temple will be subject to the same rules and requirements as other nonprofit organizations seeking to rent or use the school’s facilities. In addition, the school board’s administration has promised not to hold any press conference with regard to the Temple’s lawful rental or use of school property.
#MOARwinning
There’s some kind of local legislation/law that caused this situation. Does the 1st amendment guarantee you the right to rent School board property?
I think the argument is that if the school board is going to open up property to the public groups for rental, then they can't discriminate who that is against. Knowing a lot about the Satanic Temple, my guess is this would have never happened if they didn't have the "Good News" club at an elementary school.
They probably had no issue when the "Bad News" club set up shop.
But "Satanic Temple" was a step too far...
I see what you mean now. The First still comes into play unless the district decides to close the school to basically all non-school groups (which I think is your point). It's known as a limited public forum, and they can close it down altogether, but they can't discriminate among the groups they allow based on their viewpoints. Good News Club v. Milford Central School is right on point (probably why the press release mentioned that same club). The Court found a First A. violation when a school tried to close itself to all religious groups, fearing Establishment Clause problems. So they can't just say no religious stuff, but everyone else is cool. It's an even bigger constitutional problem to single out specific viewpoints among religious organizations.
