Pinal County, Arizona (3TV/CBS 5) – A legal battle is raging at the Pinal County Library over the First Amendment issue of separation of church and state. East said he was denied public access to host storybook time because the men in the Valley were planning to read books based on Christianity.
The county told him it was a matter of the separation of church and state, which does not appear to be addressed in their library guidelines. It all started when I sent an email to the Saint-Tann Library asking them to host a story time with a themed book. However, after sending several follow-up emails to him at the turn of the year, he finally got a response. “He was ultimately denied the opportunity and denied access to the library,” said Andrew Gould, senior councilor at First Liberty Institute.
When Frias asked why he was denied, a county representative responded with the following email: “Because the building is owned by the county, we have to be careful about the separation of church and state, and we are not allowed to offer space for churches or religious activities that could be considered preaching.”
“Of course it is unconstitutional and illegal. We cannot exclude Christian groups alone. We cannot exclude certain messages or books in public libraries simply because they are Christian or disagree with their views.” You can’t,” said Gould.
Gould said the client was sent general guidelines for meeting room use, and the family in Arizona obtained a copy. “The library’s usage guidelines are basic. They didn’t have and couldn’t have perspective-related exclusions,” Gould said.
Gould sent a letter to Pinal County on Monday demanding that he withdraw his refusal of Frias’ storytime request. The Arizona family reached out to Pinal County to seek their side of the story, and a spokesperson sent us the following statement:
The county has responded to the family in Arizona, but Gould said he and his clients had not heard any peeps. . “The bottom line is that Mr. Frias deserves the right as a citizen to have access to that library to read this book.” to allow access to Frias’s library. Otherwise, they plan to sue for unconstitutionality.
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