Government facilities available for public use
Q: I have a city council member using city council chambers, on private time, to hold an event for her non-profit – which is dedicated to putting the motto “In God We Trust” into council chambers across California and the nation. She is being charged a fee. I wonder if this is appropriate us of taxpayer funded facilities to promote a personal controversial issue that challenges the separation of church and state.
A: The situation you have described does not necessarily constitute a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has ruled that where a government body makes its facilities available for use as a public forum, it cannot discriminate against groups that seek to use the facilities for religious purposes. See Widmar v. Vincent, 454 US 263 (1981) and Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School 508 US 384, 392-93 (1993).
Thus, if the city has a general policy of renting out the facility for public use, they cannot discriminate against a group that wants to rent out the facility on the grounds that the content of that party’s speech will be “religious” (or any other basis based on the content of the speech, for that matter). A more difficult situation might be presented if the facility is not generally available to the public for a fee.