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Citing Need For A Closer Look, Second Circuit Court of Appeals Sends Rutherford Institute's Religious Brick Case to Trial

NEW YORK -- The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has sent The Rutherford Institute's religious bricks case involving several Oswego County residents to trial. The residents charged that after encouraging them to purchase, inscribe and place bricks in the school walkway as part of a student fundraiser, school officials at Mexico Academy High School removed those bricks containing overt Christian messages. Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute presented oral arguments before the Second Circuit in February 2003, appealing the District Court's refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to have the bricks reinstalled. The case will now be tried by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The Court of Appeals urged the trial court to expedite review of the case so that the issues may be thoroughly fleshed out for a renewed appeal.

Students of the Mexico Academy High School Class of 1999 conducted a fundraiser allowing members of the community to purchase bricks to be inscribed with a personal message and placed in the walkway to the school's entrance. The only restriction placed on the messages was that they not contain "obscene and vulgar language." Robert Kiesinger and Ronald Russell, residents of Oswego County, purchased bricks and inscribed them with religious messages including, "Jesus Saves/ John 3:16" and "Jesus Is Lord." In response to a complaint about the religious messages on the bricks from a member of the community, the school erected a plaque within the walkway stating, "The messages in this walk are the personal expressions and contributions of the individuals of Mexico Academy and Central School Community." By doing so, the school clearly established that the messages were private free speech not endorsed by the school. However, after renewed complaints about the bricks bearing religious messages, school officials eventually jack hammered out of the walkway all bricks inscribed with overtly Christian messages. School officials stated that any bricks referencing Jesus were considered to be promoting a particular religion and could not be included in the walkway. However, officials allowed messages such as "God Bless You" to remain, claiming that they do not pertain to a particular religion. The original lawsuit, filed by Institute attorneys in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, charged that school officials discriminated against some of the residents' religious views by specifically censoring the Christian messages inscribed on their bricks, thus violating the rights guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the New York Constitution.

"The appeals court's careful and conscientious approach to the plaintiffs' religious discrimination claims is appropriate and encouraging in this sometimes thorny area," stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "We are hopeful that on further review after a full trial, the court will see clearly that no one could have mistaken the Oswego residents' personal statements as an official endorsement of Christianity by the school, especially in view of the fact that there were hundreds of bricks expressing secular and religious messages in the walkway."

The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.


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