Fellowship Baptist Church v. Benton

ORDER'

STUART, District Judge.

This lawsuit involves the serious tensions that result when the religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution appear to be in conflict with the state’s compelling interest in seeing that its children are properly educated.

Plaintiffs are two churches which operate Christian schools in Marshalltown and Keokuk, Iowa, as part of their “educational ministry”; the churches’ pastors; the schools’ principals and several teachers; students’ parents; and students of the schools. They brought this action for declaratory and injunctive…