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San Diego Church Files Suit for Discriminatory Charges

A church is suing the city of San Diego for discrimination because it is charging religious groups much more to rent public facilities than other similar community groups.

A church is suing the city of San Diego for discrimination because it is charging religious groups much more to rent public facilities than other similar community groups.

Canyon Ridge Baptist Church is being charged a “significantly higher” rent by the city than other non-religious groups for using space at the Kearny Mesa Recreation Center, states the suit filed on Tuesday.

“Landlords shouldn’t treat Christian tenants any differently than other tenants,” said Tim Chandler, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney representing the church. “Cities cannot single out religious organizations for unequal treatment compared to all other similarly situated groups."

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The suit alleges that city employees are carrying out the pricing plan “under the color and pretense of state law.” As a result, the suit alleges, the Church will suffer “irreparable harm to its federal and state constitutional rights.”

Many other groups are charged a nominal fee or no cost to use the same place, according to court documents filed with the suit. San Diego chooses to automatically charge religious groups up to 16 times what other groups are charged, according to ADF, which is handling the church’s case.

"Enforcing different fee schedules based on a group's focus is clearly unconstitutional," Chandler said. "The city of San Diego committed a serious error when it decided to do this."

The suit claims that the city and its employees do not have a “compelling reason” that would justify that the Church or any other religious group should pay a “discriminatory fee” based solely on the fact that the groups are religious. It says that the city is favoring irreligion over religion, treating the Church and its members as “second-class” citizens because of their beliefs.

ADF also says that City has no compelling reason to justify their requirement that the Church and other religious groups pay a higher fee for access to generally available facilities.

The Church is asking that the current fee schedule for city facilities discarded and that the court award damages caused by the city, and that the legal fees be paid.

The case is Canyon Ridge Baptist Church, Inc. v. City of San Diego.

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