Religious Group Challenges Ohio Library's Meeting Room Use Rule

Fresh from a victory in Colorado in which it obtained agreement of a public library to change its rules, Liberty Counsel announced last week that it is now suing a northeast Ohio public library to challenge its policy on the use of its Community Room. The library makes the room available to non-profit organizations, but requires that if a program a group presents deals with a "controversial subject", then the group must present "all sides of the issue". Liberty Counsel applied to use the room for a meeting that would present the Biblical view of traditional marriage. The meeting was to include prayer and the reading of scripture. Permission to use the room was denied because other sides of the issue were not being presented. Liberty Counsel claims that government cannot require citizens to violate their conscience by promoting other views in order to express their own.