U.S. Court Won't Hear Suit
by Church That Barred
Same-Sex Ceremonies
By Mary Pat Gallagher, November 8, 2007
A United Methodist
Church group that barred use of its facilities for civil union
ceremonies will have no federal forum to raise a First Amendment
challenge to a state probe of its actions.
U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano dismissed the case, Ocean
Grove Camp Meeting Association v. Vespa-Papaleo, 07-CV-3802,
last Wednesday under a doctrine requiring federal court
abstention where, among other considerations, the plaintiff has
an adequate state-court forum for raising constitutional claims.
The suit was prompted by the New Jersey Division on Civil
Rights' investigation of complaints filed by two lesbian couples
who wanted to rent the Ocean Grove boardwalk pavilion for their
civil union ceremonies but were refused.
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association owns the roughly
one-square mile of land comprising the Ocean Grove section of
Neptune Township, including the beach front, boardwalk and
pavilion.
The association, which is affiliated with the United Methodist
Church, said allowing same-sex unions would violate its
religious beliefs. Though it had earlier rented the
pavilion for weddings, it claims it ceased the practice as of
April 1, shortly after turning down Harriet Bernstein and Luisa
Paster in March.
Bernstein and Paster filed a complaint with the civil-rights
division in June. The second couple, Janice Moore and
Emily Sonnessa, denied in April under the association's revised
policy, filed in July.
In its suit, filed Aug. 13, the association said it would be
"thrust into government compelled expressive association with
those who promote same-sex 'civil unions'" if it is forced to
allow them at its facilities. "Such forced association
would severely compromise the Association's desire to
communicate to the general public a message consistent with its
religious views on marriage and family," said the complaint.
The association challenged the constitutionality of the state
Law Against Discrimination to the extent it is applied to
interfere with the association's religious rights. It
asked for a declaration that the LAD cannot be applied that way
and for an injunction that bars such application.
The association's motion for a preliminary injunction, argued
Oct. 4, at the same time as the state's motion to dismiss, was
denied that same day.
In granting the motion to dismiss, Pisano applied the abstention
doctrine of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971),
finding its three-part test was satisfied: The pending
state proceedings are judicial in nature, they implicate
important state interests and the plaintiff has an adequate
opportunity to raise its constitutional concerns in the state
proceedings. He also found there was no bad faith,
harassment or other extraordinary circumstances that would
preclude Younger abstention.
Pisano rejected the association's argument that the civil rights
proceeding was not "judicial" in nature because no probable
cause finding has yet been made. He cited a 1986 case,
Ohio Civil Rights Commission v. Dayton Christian Schools,
477 U.S. 619, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held a district
judge should have abstained where a religious school challenged
the Ohio Civil Rights Commission's investigation of a sex
discrimination complaint by a teacher dismissed after she became
pregnant.
Division on Civil Rights Director J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo was
away and could not be reached for comment.
David Wald, of the Office of the Attorney General, says the
investigations had been on hold and the dismissal means the
agency can "go forward to determine whether the Ocean Grove Camp
Meeting Association is violating the LAD, as the complaints
allege."
Stephen Hyland, a Westmont attorney whose practice focuses on
gay and lesbian issues, says the ruling reaffirms that the
Division on Civil Rights is "the best mechanism for these types
of disputes."
He says resolution of the discrimination complaints "will come
down to whether there's some exemption under state law for every
asset an otherwise religiously exempt organization has" and
whether the pavilion is deemed publicly accessible.
The attention focused on the Ocean Grove association's policy on
same-sex ceremonies led the state Department of Environmental
Protection to revoke a tax exemption for the pavilion and the
land underneath it.
In a Sept. 15 letter to Scott Hoffman, the association's
administrator, Commissioner Lisa Jackson said the pleadings in
the federal suit and a letter from Michael Behrens, an
association lawyer, made it "clear the pavilion was not open to
all persons on an equal basis," even though equal access is a
prerequisite to eligibility for the tax exemption under the
Green Acres program.
Behrens, of the Messina Law Firm in Holmdel, referred questions
to lead counsel Brian Raum of the Alliance Defense Fund, who did
not return a call. The fund, a Christian advocacy group
based in Scottsdale, Ariz., focuses on issues such as opposing
abortion and same-sex marriage and defending prayer in public
schools and the public display of the Ten Commandments.
|
