Summary
Redeemer Fellowship of Edisto Island had rented the Edisto Beach Civic Center for Sunday worship on two occasions, but after the church proposed another rental agreement, the town council voted to reject the church’s application and amended the facility use guidelines to ban all rentals for “religious worship services.”
Case timeline
- August 2018: ADF filed a lawsuit against the town of Edisto Beach.
- November 2018: A federal district court heard the case. The U.S. Department of Justice also filed a statement of interest supporting Redeemer Fellowship. As the DOJ’s statement explains, “the Town’s reading of the First Amendment is exactly backwards: the Town seeks to permit the content and viewpoint discrimination against religious worship that the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses prohibit and to prohibit the equal access for religious expression that the Establishment Clause permits.”
- December 2018: The Town of Edisto Beach voluntarily changed its policy to reverse the worship ban. Now churches can rent the civic center on the same terms as every other member of the community.
- August 2019: In light of the policy change, both parties filed an agreement to end the lawsuit.
