New York, USA - New York City public schools must let religious groups rent space for meetings on the same basis as other organizations, a federal judge ruled. The city's law department said immediately it will appeal.
Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical congregation, has sought for years to rent space for Sunday worship in Public School 15. In May, the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division filed a brief supporting the church.
Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York had earlier taken the opposite side in the case.
She based her latest ruling on the 2001 Supreme Court precedent in another New York case, Good News Club v. Milford Central School. There, the high court said schools' denial of rentals for after-class Bible clubs was unconstitutional under free speech guarantees.