The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that prohibits an Idaho rescue mission from holding voluntary chapel services. The court said doing so violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
Bryan Fischer, executive director of the Idaho Values Alliance, said the ruling against the Boise Rescue Mission "borders on the unbelievable."
"You would be hard pressed to find a more egregious example of a court ruling that tramples the First Amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of religion," he said. "When a federal court says you can't participate in a worship service even if you want to, it has lost all claim to judicial sanity and credibility."
The ruling, Fischer said, is contrary to the nation's foundation of religious liberty.
"It's no accident that the very first freedom the Founding Fathers guaranteed to us is freedom of religious expression," he said. "What the 9th Circuit has done here is in-and-of itself unconstitutional and has no moral, legal or constitutional legitimacy."
