DOJ files official support of SC church banned from worshipping in civic center
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2018
** UPDATE: ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb and other ADF attorneys will be available for media interviews following a hearing in federal district court in this case on Thursday. The hearing, regarding the church’s request that the court immediately halt the town from enforcing its ban on worship services at the civic center, will take place at the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center, 83 Meeting St., Charleston, S.C., at 10 a.m. EST. **
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erik Stanley regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s statement of interest filed in federal court Tuesday in support of a South Carolina church banned from holding worship services in the town of Edisto Beach’s civic center:
“The government can’t discriminate against churches because of their beliefs. The town of Edisto Beach has told Redeemer Fellowship that it is unwelcome in the same civic center where nonreligious groups may meet—and where another church already rents a room for Bible studies, vestry meetings, and theological training. The town is constitutionally required to treat religious organizations equally, and we welcome the DOJ’s support of that principle and of our client in this case. As the DOJ’s statement of interest rightly explains, ‘the Town’s reading of the First Amendment is exactly backwards: the Town seeks to permit the content and viewpoint discrimination against religious worship that the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses prohibit and to prohibit the equal access for religious expression that the Establishment Clause permits.’”
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the church in the case, Redeemer Fellowship of Edisto Island v. Town of Edisto Beach.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erik Stanley regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s statement of interest filed in federal court Tuesday in support of a South Carolina church banned from holding worship services in the town of Edisto Beach’s civic center:“The government can’t discriminate against churches because of their beliefs. The town of Edisto Beach has told Redeemer Fellowship that it is unwelcome in the same civic center where nonreligious groups may meet—and where another church already rents a room for Bible studies, vestry meetings, and theological training. The town is constitutionally required to treat religious organizations equally, and we welcome the DOJ’s support of that principle and of our client in this case. As the DOJ’s statement of interest rightly explains, ‘the Town’s reading of the First Amendment is exactly backwards: the Town seeks to permit the content and viewpoint discrimination against religious worship that the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses prohibit and to prohibit the equal access for religious expression that the Establishment Clause permits.’”
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the church in the case, Redeemer Fellowship of Edisto Island v. Town of Edisto Beach.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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