New Life Baptist Church Academy v. Town of East Longmeadow

• Decision Date: 08 February 1989
• Docket Number: Nos. 88-1610,88-1673,88-1611 and 88-1612,s. 88-1610
• Citation: 885 F.2d 940
• Parties: , 56 Ed. Law Rep. 82 NEW LIFE BAPTIST CHURCH ACADEMY, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. TOWN OF EAST LONGMEADOW, et al., Defendants, Appellees. Appeal of COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS, Intervenor. NEW LIFE BAPTIST CHURCH ACADEMY, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. TOWN OF EAST LONGMEADOW, et al., Defendants, Appellants. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 940

885 F.2d 940

58 USLW 2198, 56 Ed. Law Rep. 82

NEW LIFE BAPTIST CHURCH ACADEMY, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. TOWN OF EAST LONGMEADOW, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

Appeal of COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS, Intervenor.

NEW LIFE BAPTIST CHURCH ACADEMY, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. TOWN OF EAST LONGMEADOW, et al., Defendants, Appellants.

Nos. 88-1610, 88-1673, 88-1611 and 88-1612.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Feb. 8, 1989.

Decided Sept. 7, 1989.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Oct. 13, 1989.

Janet Steckel Lundberg with whom Richard Friedman, Susan A. Benz and Krokidas & Bluestein were on brief for defendants.

Robert H. Blumenthal, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Educ., for intervenor.

Peter J. Brann, Asst. Atty. Gen., and James E. Tierney, Atty. Gen., on brief for the State of Me., amicus curiae.

Richard G. Gay with whom Law Office of Richard G. Gay was on brief for plaintiffs, appellees.

Christopher J. Klicka and Michael P. Farris on brief for Home School Legal Defense Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Sarah Barringer Gordon, Fine, Kaplan and Black, Michael J. Woodruff, Michael Stokes Paulsen, Center for Law and Religious Freedom, Hon. Arlin M. Adams and Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis on brief for Christian Legal Soc., Ass'n of Christian Schools Intern., Southern Baptist Convention, and Nat. Ass'n of Evangelicals, amici curiae.

Wendell R. Bird, David J. Myers and Law Offices of Wendell R. Bird on brief for American Ass'n of Christian Schools and Christian Legal Defense & Educ. Foundation, amici curiae.

Before BREYER, ALDRICH and SELYA, Circuit Judges.

BREYER, Circuit Judge.

This case raises questions about the extent to which the First Amendment permits a religious group to refuse to comply with state rules and procedures for determining the adequacy of the secular education that the religious group provides to children. The present controversy arises because a child cannot satisfy Massachusetts' compulsory school attendance laws by attending a private school unless the local school committee "approves" the education that the private school provides. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 76, Sec. 1. A school committee must "approve" the private school when the school meets certain minimal statutory criteria and also offers a secular education comparable to that provided in the town's public schools. The New Life Baptist Church Academy, together with several of its members and related persons (the plaintiffs, whom we shall collectively call the "Academy"), believe that it is a sin to "submit" their educational enterprise to a secular authority for approval. The Academy claims that the First Amendment therefore forbids the School Committee of the Town of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts (the "School Committee") to "approve" the school, particularly if the School Committee, in doing so, follows its proposed procedures for evaluating the school, procedures which essentially consist of gathering written information from the Academy, reviewing the academic credentials of the Academy's teachers, and visiting the school once (or, in the absence of adequate teacher credentials, more than once) to observe the quality of the teaching. In the Academy's view, those proposed procedures unnecessarily burden the free exercise of religion when compared with the Academy's preferred alternative, an approach that depends upon standardized pupil testing. The Academy brought this law suit to prevent the School Committee from carrying out its proposed approval process.

The district court held evidentiary hearings. It examined the School Committee's proposed procedures. It also heard evidence about how one might administer standardized tests each year to the Academy's pupils. It concluded that the School Committee's proposed approval procedures unnecessarily burden religion, given what it saw as the less burdensome possibility of "standardized testing." And, it held the School Committee's proposed evaluation methods unconstitutional, as violating both the "free exercise" and "establishment" clauses of the First Amendment. See New Life Baptist Church Academy v. Town of East Longmeadow, 666 F.Supp. 293 (D.Mass.1987) ("New Life ").

The School Committee (joined by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as intervenor) appeals. We have reviewed the record, keeping in mind that "First Amendment questions of 'constitutional fact' compel [the] Court's de novo review." Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 54, 91 S.Ct. 1811, 1825, 29 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971) (plurality opinion) (citations omitted). See Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 113-15, 106 S.Ct. 445, 451-52, 88 L.Ed.2d 405 (1985) (surveying law of constitutional facts); Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 499, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 1958, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984) ("in cases raising First Amendment issues we have repeatedly held that an appellate court has an obligation to 'make an independent examination of the whole record' " to determine the constitutional importance of the facts of the case) (citation omitted). We conclude that standardized testing does not offer an alternative that so better serves the relevant constitutional interests that the First Amendment requires its adoption. Consequently, the School Committee's efforts to evaluate and to "approve" the Academy, as now set forth (prior to implementation), do not violate the federal Constitution.

I. Background

A. State law. Massachusetts state law requires nearly all children to attend school. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 76, Sec. 1. They may attend a "public day school ... or some other day school;" but any "other day school" (i.e., private school, whether secular or parochial) must be "approved by the school committee" of the town in which the school is located. Id. The school committee must

approve a private school when satisfied that the instruction in all the studies required by law equals in thoroughness and efficiency, and in the progress made therein, that in the public schools in the same town; but shall not withhold such approval on account of religious teaching.

Id. The "studies required by law" include orthography, reading, writing, the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, music, the history and Constitution of the United States, the duties of citizenship, health education, physical education, and good behavior. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 71, Sec. 1. If children between the ages set by the state Department of Education do not attend a public school or an "approved" private school (or receive official permission to work or to be educated in some other setting), the state may prosecute their parents under Mass.Gen.L. ch. 76, Sec. 2; and any person (including a town) may initiate a civil proceeding under Mass.Gen.L. ch. 119, Sec. 24, to compel education for the children or even to remove the children from their parents.

B. The School Committee's proposal. The School Committee, complying with the statute, intends to evaluate, and then to approve or disapprove, the Academy's secular education. The Committee has developed a set of procedures to help it decide whether or not to approve a private school such as the Academy. It has modified those procedures somewhat in an effort to accommodate the Academy's religious beliefs. The record indicates that, at present, the School Committee would like to do the following:

(a) obtain information about the school's pupils, texts, daily class schedules, hours and days taught, compliance with health and safety rules, and curricula for each grade and subject, New Life, 666 F.Supp. at 300;

(b) examine the academic qualifications of faculty members, id.;

(c) visit the school once, to meet with the administrator and to obtain a first-hand impression of teaching methods, instructional materials, and curricula, id.;

(d) if the teachers lack adequate academic credentials, visit the school additional times to observe classroom teaching, id.;

(e) make suggestions for correcting deficiencies in the school's educational program (if any), id.

After taking these steps, the School Committee will decide whether to approve or disapprove the school. If it disapproves, the school will have a period of time to improve, and the School Committee will then reconsider it for approval. If the School Committee approves the Academy, the committee will review the school every two years, chiefly through written communications, to ensure that the school continues to operate satisfactorily. While ordinarily the School Committee would require a private school like the Academy to make a formal "request" for approval, see New Life, 666 F.Supp. at 299-300, it has said that it will seek to accommodate the Academy's religious tenets by asking the Academy simply to submit the required factual information, id. The School Committee will then conduct its "approval" examination on its own, without requiring the Academy to acknowledge that the information will be used as part of an "approval" process.

C. The Academy. The Academy is a school operated by an independent congregation of which the individual plaintiffs are members. New Life, 666 F.Supp. at 296-97. The Academy's religion teaches its members that

God is the sovereign and the final authority in all human conduct, [and] to submit their educational ministry for the prior or continued approval of secular authorities would violate the sovereignty of Christ over his church and would, therefore, be a sin.

New Life, 666 F.Supp. at 297. The Academy has said it has no religious objection to:

(a) complying with state health, safety and zoning rules, New Life, 666 F.Supp. at 298, 302;

(b) submitting written information to the School Committee about the number of its students, the number of hours and days taught, the curriculum, texts, the number of teachers, and the criteria for hiring teachers, id.;

(c) permitting School Committee officials to visit the Academy, at least occasionally, to meet administrators and...