Mayor de Blasio Allows Religious Groups Access to Public School Classrooms on Equal Terms

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has reversed the New York City Department of Education's policy of exclusion of religious groups that engage in "worship" from the use, on equal terms with other groups, of public school classrooms--a policy that was upheld several times by the Second Circuit as vindicating "interests favored by the Establishment Clause." The Mayor concluded that "[a] faith-based organization has a right like anyone else" to use the public school space.