The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit July 8 in federal district court on behalf of the World Church of the Creator, a white-supremacist group that was denied use of the Martin Memorial Library’s meeting room in York, Pennsylvania. The ACLU is asking the court to declare unconstitutional the library’s policy, enacted in the wake of violent street demonstrations January 12 against WCC speaker Matt Hale, that requires groups using the facility to provide evidence of $1 million in liability insurance and a bond to cover security costs.
ACLU Legal Director Stefan Presser said in the July 9 York Dispatch that the library arbitrarily chooses what groups can use its meeting room, because it allowed six groups to meet recently without the insurance. “If the library or York County can decide they don’t like someone’s message today,” Presser said, “there would be nothing prohibiting them from silencing others in the future.”
However, Library CEO William Schell maintains that the library has a right to recover the cost for additional security and to protect itself from liability for injuries and property damage. He said that no one has been granted a waiver: Six groups signed up before the policy was in place, 21 groups met the requirements, and three—the WCC, a scrapbook collector’s club, and a marketing group—were rejected.
“If you have a policy, you have to implement the policy and follow the policy,” Schell said. “That’s what we are doing.”
Posted July 15, 2002.