Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. New Kensington-Arnold School District

118 F. Supp. 3d 821, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97654, 2015 WL 4534850
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 27, 2015
DocketNo. 2:12-cv-1319
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 118 F. Supp. 3d 821 (Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. New Kensington-Arnold School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. New Kensington-Arnold School District, 118 F. Supp. 3d 821, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97654, 2015 WL 4534850 (W.D. Pa. 2015).

Opinion

[823]*823 MEMORANDUM OPINION

TERRENCE F. McVERRY, Senior District Judge.

Pending before the Court are the cross-motions for summary judgment filed by Defendant, New Kensington-Arnold School District, and Plaintiffs, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. (“FFRF”), Doe 1, and Marie Schaub, who sues as Doe l’s next of friend and on her own behalf. ECF Nos. 58, 62. The motions have been fully briefed, and the factual record has been thoroughly developed via the parties’ concise statements of material fact, the responses thereto, and the attached appendices. ECF Nos. 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 82. Accordingly, the motions are ripe for disposition.

I.Background

Since 1957, a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments has been located on the lawn outside of Valley High School in the New Kensington-Arnold School District. Standing approximately 6 feet tall and weighing upwards of 2,000 pounds, the monument sits on a grassy area between two sidewalks extending from a parking lot to the high school’s gymnasium. The inscription on the monument reads:

The Ten Commandments I AM the LORD thy God.
I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
II. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
III. Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.
IV. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giv-eth thee.
V. Thou shalt not kill.
VI. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
VII. Thou shalt not steal.
VIII. Thou shalt not bear 'false witness against thy neighbor.
IX. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.
X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

At the top of the monument, there are two tablets inscribed with unreadable Hebrew script surrounded by a floral motif. An all-seeing eye sits between the two tablets, and an eagle grasping the American flag sits immediately below the all-seeing eye. Below the text are the superimposed Greek letters Chi and Rho, two Stars of David, and an inscription indicating that the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a national civic organization, donated the monument. The monument at Valley High School is one of many throughout the country donated by the Eagles or their local chapters in the middle of the last century.

Plaintiff Schaub lives in the School District with her daughter, Doe 1. Schaub is a member of the FFRF, a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting the separation of church and state and educating the public on non-theism. Schaub identifies as an atheist and objects to the presence of the monument on the high school grounds. Prior to filing this lawsuit, however, she had “only been to the school a handful of tunes.” Schaub Dep. 52:20-21. She viewed the Ten Commandments monument on one or two occasions when dropping off her sister at the high school. (It is not clear when these visits were.) She also viewed the monument when attending a karate event at the high school with Doe 1 in 2007 or 2008. She testified that although she did not stop to read the monument in full, as soon as she saw the line “I am the Lord thy God,” her “stomach turned and [sh]e just kept on walking.” Id. at 92:12. She elaborated:

[824]*824[A]t.the time whenever I was attending these events, it didn’t even occur to ,me — I wasn’t even educated on the fact that [the Ten Commandments] shouldn’t be there. . I was just kind of like — you know, I didn’t even really realize that it was inappropriate to have it there— I didn’t put two and two together that ... this is a religious monument and it’s on public school property. I kind of looked at it out of the corner of my eye, didn’t really think too much about it and I just kept on walking.

Id. at 96:6-25. According to her affidavit, however, she “view[s] the Ten Commandments monument as ‘commanding’ that students and visitors worship ‘thy God.’” Chaub Aff. ¶ 13. “To [her], the presence of the Ten Commandments monument in front of the school signals that [she is] an outsider because [she] do[es] not follow the particular religion or god that the monument endorses.” Id. ¶ 14. She also does not want her daughter, Doe 1, to.attend a school that, in her view, “endorses religion.” Id. ¶ 15.

At the time this action commenced, Doe 1 was a middle school student in the School-District. Although she has never been a student at the high school, she used ■the swimming pool there from third to fifth’ grade with her daycare program, and as already noted she also attended a karate event at the high school with her mother in 2007 or-2008. On these occasions, she walked past the Ten Commandments monument, but she “didn’t really pay attention to [it]. [She] was just kind of ignoring it because [she] didn’t really care about it.” Doe l’s Dep. at 11:8-11. In addition, she testified that although she saw the 'monument, she “was' young so [she] didn’t really know whát it meant.” Id. at 19:8-9. From ■ the time of these encounters until the time this lawsuit was initiated, Doé 1 never came in direct contact with the monument again, though she has viewed it while driving to the house of a-friend who lives near the high school. When Doe 1 was in eighth grade-after this lawsuit was filed — she visited the high .school for a dinner dance. Moreover, although Doe 1 was set to begin attending the high school in August 2014, her family decided, during the pendency of this action, to withdraw her from the School District, and place her in different school system, allegedly to avoid contact with the monument.

On March 20,2012, FFRF staff attorney Patrick Elliot sent a letter to then-School Board president George Batterson, requesting that the monument be removed. The School Board refused. After hearing about the letter on the news, Schaub filled out what she described as a “complaint” on FFRF’s web site. Elliot subsequently got in touch’ with her. Thereafter, FFRF, Schaub, and Doe 1, through counsel, sent another letter to the School .District’s' interim superintendent, Thomas Rocchi, and the School Board, threatening legal action if the School District failed to remove the monument. Again, the School District refused.

That being the case, Plaintiffs initiated this action by filing a one-count Complaint against the School District on September 14, 2012,1 seeking a declaration that the [825]*825display of the Ten Commandments monument on school grounds violates the Establishment Clause and requesting an injunction directing the School District to remove the monument. The Complaint also seeks nominal damages. On November 16, 2012, the School District filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the Complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Court disá-greed and denied the School District’s motion to dismiss in a Memorandum Opinion and Order dated January 22, 2013.'

Following the close of discovery, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

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118 F. Supp. 3d 821, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97654, 2015 WL 4534850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/freedom-from-religion-foundation-inc-v-new-kensington-arnold-school-pawd-2015.