Religious Discrimination in Public Facilities

Public facilities should be open to use by all. Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against discrimination in public facilities, which are publicly owned and operated facilities open to the public, such as parks and community centers. Title III authorizes the Attorney General to bring suit when a person has been denied equal access to public facilities on account of race, color, religion, or national origin.

Recent religious discrimination cases:

• Balch Springs, Texas: In November 2003, the Civil Rights Division opened a Title III investigation of the City of Balch Springs, Texas, after the city-run senior center told seniors that they could no longer pray before meals, sing Gospel songs, or hold Bible studies. All of these activities were initiated and engaged in by the seniors alone, and no employee of the center was involved. Nonetheless, the city mistakenly believed that the separation of church and state required it to implement the ban. In addition to the Civil Rights Division investigation, the seniors filed suit alleging that their constitutional rights were violated by the ban. After mediation by the Civil Rights Division, the city settled with the seniors on January 8, 2004. Read the Justice Department's press release.

• Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts of America: The Civil Rights Division submitted an appeals court brief in this case arguing that the Boy Scouts' leasing of parkland from the City of San Diego does not violate the Constitution. The court below held that the Boy Scouts of America is a religious organization, and therefore leases under which the Boy Scouts developed and operated a campground and a boating center on city parkland violated the Establishment Clause. The Civil Rights Division's brief argued that the Boy Scouts' requirement that Scouts be reverent does not make it a religious organization. The brief further argued that even if it were a religious organization, low-cost leases to the Boy Scouts, in return for which the Boy Scouts invested several million dollars and agreed to keep the facilities open to the public, were similar to leases San Diego made with other community groups to develop under-used city properties. Since the leasing program did not favor religious organizations, and since the particular leases in question involved making land available for the purely secular activities of boating and camping, the brief concluded that the lease with the Boy Scouts did not violate the Establishment Clause.

If you believe you have been denied access to a public facility on the basis of religion, you should contact the Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination at (202) 353-8622 or send an email to FirstFreedom@usdoj.gov.