In 'liberal' California, it's 'Play for our god or don't play' — and a judge agrees

[Oeditpus Rex]

From the local excuse:


Hollister - A San Benito County judge has dismissed a case against Rovella's Athletic Club that alleged the club violated a Hollister family's religious freedom.

Andrew and Christine Martinez sued Rovella's in January after the couple's son, a minor, was told to leave the club swim team because he refused to sign the team handbook. The handbook stated that the team's highest priority is "God."

(snip)

According to their complaint, the Martinezes' son entered the Rovella's swimming program in 2005. He was eventually asked to join the club's competitive swim team and to sign the team handbook. But the Martinez family was uncomfortable with overtly religious portions of the handbook - including a list designating "God" as the team's top priority and a description of the team as "a Christian organization seeking to honor and serve Jesus Christ" - and they crossed out those sections before signing.

Club owner Steve Rovella refused to accept the handbook, according to the complaint, and he told the Martinezes that Rovella's would not "lower our standards." The complaint also states that the Martinezes eventually were told their son was not welcome on the team.

http://www.freelancenews.com/news/contentview.asp?c=222994

[ThomCat]

1. Yes, again we see that christians are so persecuted.

x(

It's a private club so they have the right to do this. It still stinks.

[Az]

2. Is it a private club or a publically funded club?

If its a private club .... well then that is their right.

[AlCzervik]

4. i'm guessing it's private.

[TlalocW]

3. It's an athletic club so that probably means it's privately owned

This won't fly. If it had been a public school's swim team then they would have a case, methinks.

TlalocW

[ComerPerro]

5. Private club, yes, so they can get away with it. But I think it is very telling

that they have to flaunt the religious connection. I always suspect people, businesses, and groups that have to repeatedly emphasize how Christian they are.

[K8-EEE]

6. There's no freedom OF religion without freedom FROM it...

This sucks...

[marmar]

7. California, like most blue states, looks very red on a county-by-county electoral map....

Luckily the majority of people, and sanity, are in the urban agglomerations.

[baldguy]

8. Rovella has a right to be an asshole.

It's an American tradition.

[Maat]

9. The key to this case is California's Unruh Act, in my humble opinion.

************************************************Quote**********************************************
In January, a Sacramento civil rights lawyer and a law professor at the University of California, Davis, both said for-profit businesses cannot deny service to anyone based on their religion. But PJI attorneys Kevin Snider and Matthew McReynolds argued that Rovella was only expressing his religious beliefs.

"So long as a business does not refuse to engage in commerce with members of the public based upon religious affiliation, there is no violation of the Unruh Act," Snider and McReynolds wrote.

The PJI attorneys also said the handbook's religious references set priorities for the team, not its individual members.
********************************************Endquote***********************************************

It sounds as if the judge did not belief that the plaintiffs' had used the proper language (related to the Act) in their allegations, directing addressing it, and backed it up with facts. Could that be?

I believe that they could either file again, or have a decent appeal there, for "the Team" was something that a client paid for, and they discriminated against that client, by forcing him to practice their faith instead of his, by compelling the signing of the book. This discrimination would constitute a violation of the Act, would it not?

I would personally disagree with the validity of the second paragraph of the quote above.

Thoughts?