Injunction denied

A U.S. District Court judge has indicated that a Fredericksburg church's discrimination lawsuit is unlikely to succeed.

Calvary Christian Center sued the city in June for unjustly discriminating against the disabled and violating the First Amendment when the city council denied the church's special use permit to open a day school for disabled children. ('Discrimination?' 6/15)

District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. denied the church a preliminary injunction that would have forced the city to grant the special use permit, stating, "Calvary is not likely to prevail in this case."

Gibney asserted that Calvary may not have standing to sue under either the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Rehabilitation Act, and that its religious discrimination suit is not likely to stand.

A press release from Fredericksburg City Attorney Kathleen Dooley states the ruling "is a significant one that, while preliminary, bodes well for the city's ultimate successful defense of the lawsuit."

"In the court's opinion, Calvary Christian Center failed to demonstrate that it would likely succeed on any of its claims."

"Although we are disappointed with the judge's ruling, we will continue to press forward on the case," said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley, who is representing the church. "[We are] emphasizing that this is only a preliminary ruling, and we're hopeful to still achieve victory either in trial or on appeal."

Pastor Michael Hirsch believed God was calling his church to reach out to Fredericksburg's mentally and emotionally disabled children. So he and the congregation at Calvary Christian Center moved forward with plans to merge with Fairwinds Day School and operate the school as a ministry of the church.

But the Fredericksburg city council rejected the church's plans, citing safety concerns for non-disabled children that attend the church's already existing before-and-after-school program. However, the day school and the daycare programs would operate at different times and in separate parts of the church's 14,088-square-foot building.

The judge agreed with the city's concerns regarding the safety of both the disabled children in the church's day school and children who are in the church's before- and after-school daycare. The opinion states that although the church has received a permit to operate its before- and after-school program, it has never opened the daycare and has "no experience in whether parents encounter scheduling problems in picking up their children." While safety alone was not sufficient to deny the church's request, Gibney said, it "fit into a larger matrix" that indicates the city did not have discriminatory intent.

The school submitted pages detailing how Fairwinds' licensed special education teachers would escort children from the drop-off point at the front of the church to the classroom. Although the church has claimed that there would be "little to no interaction" between the two groups of students, they have stated, "However, we will not discriminate against disabled children who are enrolled in the day school and may also require accommodations of their need in our day care."

The judge also took issue with the fact that the church apparently intends to lease its building to the for-profit Fairwinds Day School instead of operating the school itself. Since the Fairwinds curriculum is secular, Gibney argued, that weakens the church's religious discrimination case.

"It is difficult to find that an organization can declare a secular activity to be part of its religious doctrine, and then rent space to a for-profit business to conduct that activity," Gibney wrote.

Fairwinds Day School has several past zoning violations, the judge indicated, which also contributed to the city's denial.

The case is set to be tried in December.

Read the entire opinion here.

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