Expressing confidence in the original policy’s adherence to First Amendment principles, Director Sharon Quay explained that officials were concerned about the expense of litigation. “Every $15 is a book, and every $1,000 is an internet computer for the public,” she said in the August 19 Denver Post. She added that it was unnerving that Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit within days of their meeting-room application being declined. “We never had a chance to talk to them about it,” Quay explained.
Approved August 16, the updated policy states that meeting rooms are available to all groups “regardless of their affiliations or beliefs.” The policy emphasizes that use of the facility “does not sponsor nor endorse the views of any group” and that “any publicity for a scheduled event must include this disclaimer.” The revision would enable Liberty Counsel to hold the event at the library for which it filled out a meeting-room application: a program incorporating scriptural readings and prayer into a discussion about defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
The Rampart Library District suit is the seventh filed by Liberty Counsel since 2000 over the right to conduct sectarian programs in public library meeting rooms.
Posted August 26, 2005.