Faith Center Church v. Glover

Citation462 F.3d 1194
Decision Date20 September 2006
Docket NumberNo. 05-16132.,05-16132.
PartiesFAITH CENTER CHURCH EVANGELISTIC MINISTRIES, a California non-profit religious corporation; Hattie Hopkins, an individual, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Federal D. GLOVER, member and Chair of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors; Mark DeSaulnier; John M. Gioia; Millie Greenberg, members of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors; John W. Sweeten; Anne Cain, Contra Costa County Librarian; Patty Chan, Senior Branch Librarian for the Antioch Branch of the Contra Costa County Public Library; Laura O'Donahue, Administrative Deputy Director for the Antioch Branch of the Contra Costa County Public Library; Gayle B. Uilkema, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Silvano B. Marchesi, Kelly M. Flanagan, and Danielle R. Merida, County Counsel, Martinez, CA; Debra S. Belaga and Colleen M. Kennedy, O'Melveny & Myers

LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the appellants.

Benjamin W. Bull, Gary S. McCaleb, and Jordan W. Lorence, Alliance Defense Fund, Scottsdale, AZ; Elizabeth A. Murray, Alliance Defense Fund, Washington, D.C.; Timothy D. Chandler, Alliance Defense Fund, Folsom, CA; Terry L. Thompson, Law Offices of Terry L. Thompson, Alamo, CA, for the appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; Jeffrey S. White, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-04-03111-JSW.

Before: RICHARD A. PAEZ and RICHARD C. TALLMAN, Circuit Judges, and LAWRENCE K. KARLTON,* Senior District Judge.

PAEZ, Circuit Judge:

This appeal from the grant of a preliminary injunction involves an evangelical Christian church seeking access to a public library meeting room to conduct, among other activities, religious worship services. We are called upon to navigate between two equally important interests: the church's right to access a government building that is open to other groups, and the government's right to preserve its property for its intended uses. We conclude that the district court erred when it found that the church was likely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim and therefore abused its discretion in granting preliminary injunctive relief. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292, and we reverse in part and remand.

I.

The relevant facts are not disputed. Contra Costa County ("County") makes available to the public its public library meeting rooms during operating hours. The County's goal in making these meeting rooms available is "to encourage the use of library meeting rooms for educational, cultural and community related meetings, programs and activities." Pursuant to the County's library meeting room policy, "[n]on-profit and civic organizations, for-profit organizations, schools and governmental organizations" may use the meeting room space for "meetings, programs, or activities of educational, cultural or community interest." The County regulates use of the meeting rooms in the following ways: (1) library meeting rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis; (2) the applicant must submit an application that identifies the applicant and purpose of the meeting; (3) access to the meeting room is contingent upon approval by the library staff, and the County library reserves the right to deny an application or revoke permission previously granted; (4) an applicant must pay a fee for use of the meeting room when a meeting is not open to the general public, when it charges an admission fee, or when it involves sales or solicitations; (5) schools may not utilize a meeting room "for instructional purposes as a regular part of the curriculum"; and (6) the library meeting room "shall not be used for religious services."

It is the last policy restriction on "Religious Use" that is the subject of this case. The "Religious Use" restriction has twice been amended since the present action was filed in the district court. Initially, the policy provided that "[l]ibrary meeting rooms shall not be used for religious purposes." In August 2004, the County modified the policy to prohibit use of library meeting rooms "for religious services or activities." On December 14, 2004, the County Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution No.2004/655, the County's current policy, to prohibit "religious services" from being conducted in library meeting rooms.

Plaintiff Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries is a non-profit religious corporation led by plaintiff Pastor Hattie Mae Hopkins (collectively "Faith Center"). According to Faith Center's verified amended complaint, Pastor Hopkins believes that she is called to share her Christian faith with others. Pastor Hopkins believes that there are many individuals who need to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ but who may never enter a traditional church building. To reach those individuals, Pastor Hopkins holds meetings and worship services in non-church buildings under the auspices of Faith Center. Participants at Faith Center's meetings generally "(a) discuss educational, cultural, and community issues from a religious perspective; (b) engage in religious speech and religious worship; and (c) engage in discussing the Bible and other religious books [as well as] teaching, praying, singing, sharing testimonies, sharing meals, and discussing social and political issues."

Pastor Hopkins believes that divine providence guided her to begin holding Faith Center meetings in Antioch, California. In May 2004, Pastor Hopkins submitted applications requesting to use the County's Antioch Branch Library meeting room for May 29, 2004 and July 31, 2004. In each application, Pastor Hopkins described the purpose of Faith Center's meetings as "Prayer, Praise and Worship Open to the Public, Purpose to Teach and Encourage Salvation thru Jesus Christ and Build up Community." Pastor Hopkins received confirmation from Antioch Library staff that her applications had been approved and that Faith Center's dates were reserved on the library's calendar.

Faith Center advertised its May 29, 2004 meeting with a flyer describing a "Women of Excellence Conference" sponsored by Faith Center Evangelistic Ministries Outreach. The flyer stated:

Coming to Antioch, California, on May 29th 2004, where the power of God would be moving to bring miracles into your life. "For this is the hour of the believer," thus saith the Lord, for divine impartation of spiritual gifts, and empowerment, for the body of Christ to move forward in total victory. Come and receive your blessing!

The flyer divided the day's activities into a "Wordshop" from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., refreshments, and an afternoon "Praise and Worship" service with a sermon by Pastor Hopkins from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The topic of the morning "wordshop" was "`The Making of an Intercessor,' an End-time call to Prayer for every Believer, and how to pray fervent, effectual Prayers that God hears and answers."

Faith Center held its meeting and service on May 29, 2004. Toward the end of the afternoon service, Antioch Library staff informed Faith Center representatives that they were not permitted to use the meeting room for religious activities. According to Faith Center, the library staff did not express concern about excessive noise but rather about a violation of the "Religious Use" policy, which, at that time, prohibited the use of library meeting rooms for "religious purposes."1 In June 2004, the County removed Faith Center's July 31, 2004 meeting from the Antioch Library calendar and later confirmed with Faith Center that the July meeting had been cancelled.

On July 30, 2004, Faith Center sued to enjoin the County from excluding Faith Center's proposed religious meetings on the basis of the County's "Religious Use" policy.2 Faith Center also sought a declaration that the meeting room policy was unconstitutional on its face and as applied to Faith Center's proposed use of the meeting room.3 Faith Center expressed a desire to hold Saturday morning meetings in the Antioch meeting room every other month.

Before the district court, Faith Center argued that the County discriminated against Faith Center on the basis of the church's viewpoint when it enforced its old policy prohibiting access to the meeting room for "religious purposes" and cancelled Faith Center's July 31, 2004 meeting. Faith Center also asserted that enforcement of any of the County's "Religious Use" policies, including the current one barring "religious services," would result in viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

The County agreed that its former meeting room policies were overly broad and that Faith Center's morning "wordshop" at the May 29th meeting was the type of religious speech activity that would be permitted under the current policy. The County, however, argued that barring Faith Center's religious worship services from the meeting room was a permissible exclusion of a category of speech meant to preserve a limited public forum for its intended uses. The County viewed Faith Center's May 29th afternoon "praise and worship" session as mere religious worship exceeding the purpose for which the meeting room forum had been created.4

The district court granted Faith Center's motion for a preliminary injunction. See Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, No. 04-03111, 2005 WL 1220947 (N.D.Cal. May 23, 2005). The district court concluded that Faith Center was substantially likely to prevail on its claim that enforcement of the County's past or current library meeting room policies to exclude Faith Center's proposed religious worship activities would result in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. The district court granted relief on the basis of Faith Center's as applied challenge.

The district court based its order on four legal premises: (1) religious worship is speech protected by the First Amendment; ...

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3 cases
  • Faith Center Church Evangelistic v. Glover
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
    • September 20, 2006
    ...ORDER The final sentence of the seventh paragraph of Section V.A. of the Opinion filed September 20, 2006 and published at 462 F.3d 1194, 1209 (9th Cir.2006), is amended by inserting the following after "See id. at 138 n. 3, 121 S.Ct. 2093, 150 L.Ed.2d 151": "(Souter, J., The full court was......
  • Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Educ., Ny
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • July 2, 2007
    ...to SOP § 5.11, does not reckon with its facial challenge to the rule. Compl. at 6; cf. Faith Ctr. Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, 462 F.3d 1194, 1219 (9th Cir.2006) (Tallman, J., dissenting) ("Faith Center also brought a facial challenge to the policy."). Bronx Household's facial ......
  • Boldon v. Humana Ins. Co.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Arizona
    • December 13, 2006
    ...harm; or (2) that serious questions are raised and the balance of hardships tips in its favor." Faith Ctr. Church Evangelistic Ministries v. Glover, 462 F.3d 1194, 1201-02 (9th Cir.2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). These formulations are not different tests but rather "two points on......

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