Court Okays Using Churches As Polling Places

Using a Catholic church as a polling place does not violate the Constitution, even if voters are told to cast their ballots in a room containing crucifixes and other religious icons, a federal judge in Florida ruled.

Judge Donald Middlebrooks rejected a lawsuit brought by Jerry Rabinowitz of Delray Beach, Fla., who sought an order barring Palm Beach County from using houses of worship as voting sites.

"This is not a case where a governmental actor actively placed a religious icon or message at a voting location," the judge wrote in a decision filed yesterday. "Plaintiff did not have to vote in a booth where the Defendant had placed a crucifix above the ballot, or where the first page of the ballot read ‘Each of us matters to God.'"

Judge Middlebrooks said no reasonable person would conclude that the county was endorsing Catholicism or any religious symbols found in the church. He said the fact that Mr. Rabinowitz or others were offended did not amount to a constitutional violation. "An individual's subjective feeling is not dispositive," the judge wrote.

The American Humanist Association, which backed the legal challenge, said it was considering an appeal and plans to file similar cases in other locales.

"Such a religiously charged environment can serve to intimidate or unduly influence a person's vote," the group's president, Mel Lipman, said in a written statement.