Court Opinion

ID: 9466434
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:15:27.353381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:43.627168
License: Public Domain

MacKINNON, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
The National Park Service on August 1st issued a Public Gathering Permit to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington to hold an outdoor mass by his Holiness John Paul II between.October 4 — October 7, 1979 at the following locations: National Mall, Washington Monument, Ellipse, Lincoln Memorial green, United States Capitol grounds. The permit was issued in accordance with National Park regulations set forth in CFR Title 36, Chapter I, Section 50.9 and was granted subject to certain customary conditions that the National Park Service imposes on such public gatherings. These include the condition that “no fee may be collected, donations solicited . ” and that articles involving commercial activity may not be “offered for sale”.
Appellants complaint against the appellees seeks to enjoin the gathering authorized by said permit on the ground that said gathering would violate the First Amendment and invade appellants’ rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution. The First Amendment provides:
*938Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of griévances.
Our immediate concern is the motion by appellants for an injunction pending appeal in support of which they have filed a statement of points and authorities.
Their initial contention is that the use of Government funds to support the activity authorized by the permit which “involves” strictly religious ceremonies constitutes an establishment of religion in violation of the First Amendment. In this connection it is appellants principal contention that the First Amendment provisions will be violated by the Government’s providing “a chain link fence for crowd control, portable water fountains, electrical current, park police services for crowd control and traffic control.” The estimated cost of the park police is set at $100,000 to $150,000; the chain link fence including construction and removal at $13,450; the cost of park rangers and park maintenance crews, including electricians and plumbers at approximately $15,000, for a total of $128,450 to $178,450.
The items involved in this expenditure divide themselves into crowd control and the electrical current for loud speakers used to broadcast the service to the crowd. The Government heretofore has paid the costs of crowd control and furnished electricity for large gatherings on the Mall. Within our memory this would include Resurrection City, The Moratorium, The Farm Tractors Protest, etc. Thus there is nothing to indicate that the payment by the Government of such expenditures in this instance would indicate any approval of the religious ceremony any more than the Government’s permit and expenditures for such purposes at the so-called, Moratorium Gathering, which sought to “shut down the Government”, indicated any approval of that activity. This argument of appellants is thus rejected.
Appellants also contend that if the religious mass is performed on October 7, 1979 we could have a religious service every Sunday thereafter and the Mall would become a Church. . However, the record indicates that the Government on widely separated occasions has been allowing the use of the Mall for special events and regular use is restricted by the regulations. To attempt to convert this irregular practice into a regular practice would be in contradiction of the regulations and the basis upon which prior permits have been issued in these matters. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that because permits are issued for widely separated special events the Government would thereby be forced to issue permits for such activities on a regular basis. In other words, authorizing special events of a religious nature on widely separated occasions is one thing so far as the establishment clause is concerned and to do so on a regular basis is another thing. In my view the pernfit in question issued for this special occasion does not constitute a violation of the establishment clause, and does not tend to establish that the Government must do so on a regular basis.
In coming to the foregoing conclusion, I find that in issuing this permit the Government cannot be interpreted as giving its stamp of approval to the spiritual content of any sermon or declaration that may be made on the occasion. Allen v. Hickel, 138 U.S.App.D.C. 31, 424 F.2d 944 (D.C.Cir. 1970). I thus do not conclude as appellants argue that “the Government’s permitting a religious service to take place on Government property . . will be demonstrating to the world that the United States Government will approve the spiritual content of the Pope’s mass.” Rather, it appears to me that the Government by permitting the religious service to take place on Government property will be demonstrating to the world that the United States Government supports the free exercise of religion. As Justice Douglas remarked in Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 313-14, 72 S.Ct. 679, 96 L.Ed. 954 (1952);
We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. *939We guarantee the freedom to worship as one chooses. We make room for as wide a variety of beliefs and creeds as the spiritual needs of man deem necessary. We sponsor an attitude on the part of government that shows no partiality to any one group and that lets each flourish according to the zeal of its adherents and the appeal of its dogma. When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities by adjusting the schedule of public events to sectarian needs, it follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs. To hold that it may not would be to find in the Constitution a requirement that the government show a callous indifference to religious groups. That would be preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe. Government may not finance religious groups nor undertake religious instruction nor blend secular and sectarian education nor use secular institutions to force one or some religion on any person. But we find no constitutional requirement which makes it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective scope of religious influence. The Government must be neutral when it comes to competition between sects. It may not thrust any sect on any person. It may not make a religious observance compulsory. It may not coerce anyone to attend church, to observe a religious holiday, or to take religious instruction.
It should also be noted that this nation permits Congress and every state legislative body to be opened by prayer of a Chaplain of various religious faiths. In the Armed Services, in all locations in the country and throughout the world, Chaplains of all religions are permitted to give sermons on property under Government control or ownership. Furthermore, apart from the size of the crowd and so far as the Constitutional question is concerned, the Government is doing nothing more here than every city of moderate size in the United States does when it permits the Salvation Army to hold public services on street corners and preach Christianity to all who will stand to listen.
In my view, appellants have no likelihood of prevailing on the merits and I thus voted to deny the injunction pending appeal.
I concur in Judge LEVENTHAL’S opinion.