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82 Maryland Attorney General Reports and Opinions 3 (1997)

handle is hein.sag/sagmd0020 and id is 1 raw text is: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE - CHURCH'S USE OF SPACE IN A PUBLICLY OWNED FACILITY June 4, 1997 The Honorable Steven T. Sager Mayor of Hagerstown You have requested our opinion on the constitutionality of a church's use of portions of a publicly owned facility, an armory leased by the City of Hagerstown from the State. The City, in turn, subleases space to the church for two uses: Sunday worship, in an area that is used on other days by various secular organizations; and office space for the minister of the church, occupied on a full-time basis for what you describe as a nominal rent. Our opinion is as follows: 1. If the space in the armory used for Sunday worship is made available to the church on essentially the same terms as the space is made available to other organizations, the rental is not objectionable under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Indeed, excluding the church might well violate the church's rights under the Free Speech Clause of the First Am endment. 2. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from providing a subsidy for the maintenance of a church office. Allowing office space in the armory to be used for a nominal rent is permissible only if the space has so little economic value that it would likely be vacant were it not used by the church - in other words, only if the nominal rent in fact reflects the actual value of the space. 3