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Ohio

Ruling: Religious groups can use civic center

UNION TWP. – This Clermont County community has settled a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Community Values, and it now will allow religious groups to use its Civic Center and adjoining amphitheater.

Union Township agreed to pay $1 to Sharonville-based Citizens for Community Values, which seeks to promote Judeo-Christian values and influence public policy. Township trustees also agreed this month to pay $8,999 in attorney fees to the group’s lawyer, David R. Langdon.

The group referred questions about the settlement to Langdon, who declined to comment, saying the terms were confidential.

The township denied any wrongdoing and any liability in the settlement, a copy of which was obtained today by The Enquirer. However, the township has reversed a policy that had barred religious functions in the Civic Center since it opened in 2004.

“I don’t know why that policy said that,” said David D. Duckworth, who became township administrator in March. “You can’t discriminate on religious grounds.”

In the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati last June, Citizens for Community Values claimed it had been barred from using a government meeting room at the Civic Center on Aicholtz Road to discuss what the Bible teaches about Christian involvement in politics.

A former township official told the group that a seminar called “Politics and the Pulpit,” which would have included prayer and religious songs, might violate the “separation of church and state,” the suit said.

Union Township’s refusal to allow the seminar violated the nonprofit group’s rights to freedom of speech and worship under the U.S. Constitution, the suit said.

Because meeting rooms may be used by nonprofit groups for non-religious purposes and because its unwritten policy was discriminatory, the township also violated Citizens for Community Values’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law and due process, the suit claimed.

Now, “our public facilities are that – they’re available for anyone to use,” Duckworth said. “We’ve changed our park rules to allow our amphitheater to be used for weddings, and they’re religious ceremonies.”