The churches are represented by Mathew Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, a civil liberties education and legal defense organization. These churches pay rental fees to the school in order to rent the facilities to conduct their meetings. The meetings are not conducted during school time and are not conducted in the present of school children. The ACLU has not complained about the secular organizations renting the school facilities, but claims the rental to the churches violates the Constitution. The Supreme Court has indicated that government must remain neutral toward religion.
Neutrality means equal treatment.
If the Manatee County School Board evicted the churches, while at the same time allowing the secular organizations to rent the facilities, that is a clear violation of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has clearly ruled that religious organizations may use public facilities, including rental of public school property, if this property is also used by or rented to secular organizations. Schools must treat religious and secular organizations equally. The churches have a constitutional right to rent the facilities from the school board. The ACLU's version of the Constitution would create hostility toward religion and treat religious speech like second class speech.