CO Library Sued After Rejecting Meeting

-- Library Journal, 06/24/2005

After a Colorado library refused use of a meeting room to a group to pray and discuss scriptural passages regarding such issues as marriage and homosexuality, the group has sued the library. The conservative group Liberty Counsel was told the session would violate a policy requiring that meetings “religious or political in nature must provide a balanced view." Said Liberty Counsel’s Mathew Staver, “This library policy would require the NAACP to invite the KKK to present its view on civil rights.”

Tom James, counsel for the Rampart Library District, told the Rocky Mountain News, "The district believes it has a reasonable and lawful policy to the use of its meeting room." Staver said Liberty Counsel had been granted meeting rooms at libraries in Florida and Virginia. The American Library Association’s interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights regarding meeting rooms notes that library policy statements “can properly define time, place, or manner of use; such qualifications should not pertain to the content of a meeting or to the beliefs or affiliations of the sponsors.”