Court Finds Separation Between Church and Post Office (WTIC.com)

www.WTIC.com:  "The Second Circuit Court of Appeals orders the Full Gospel Interdenominational Church in Manchester to put a barrier between its religious items, and a post office counter in the church's Main Street building. 

The court suggested a rope line. 

Connecticut Civil Liberties Union lawyer David McGuire represents a Manchester man who objected to prayer cards on the postal counter.

'There really must be a separation of church and state, to comply with the establishment clause of the first amendment,' McGuire said.  'Prior to this court's decision, a person like [Bertram] Cooper, who was the main plaintiff in this case, would walk into this postal unit that served a public function, and see an obvious endorsement of religion.'

Cooper and the ACLU sued the church, saying prayer cards and donation boxes should not have been placed at the postal counter.

In a written statement, the Alliance Defense Fund, which represented the church, wrote 'We’re pleased that the 2nd Circuit agreed that the First Amendment does not call for a wholesale religious cleansing of the church’s speech from its own facility.'"

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