In Bridges v. Prince Georges County, Maryland, ( D MD, Feb. 1, 2024), a Maryland federal district court declined to approve summary judgment for either complainant or the accuseds in a match by a Muslim pastor declaring that his first Modification rights were breached by the application procedure for a paid supervisory position at the county detention center. At concern was a “Declaration of Candidate’s Christian Faith” that became part of the application developed by Jail Ministry of America (PMA) which, under agreement with the county, was to supply a non-denominational pastor manager for the prison. After discovering that complainant had standing which PMA was a state star throughout the working with procedure, the court stated in part:
Since a sensible jury might discover the Declaration of Christian Faith to be “& ldquo; a spiritual test & rdquo; ……, summary judgment can not be approved in favor of Offenders on this count. Nevertheless, Offenders’ & rsquo; assertion that the Declaration was optional produces an enough disagreement of product reality regarding render summary judgment improper in Complainant’& rsquo; s prefer, too ….
Despite whether the Declaration of Christian Faith was compulsory or not, the addition of such a declaration, specifically considered that it appeared on its face to be needed, plainly utilized a non-neutral policy as it particularly enabled involvement by Christians and no others. This non-neutral practice, then, might be seen by a sensible jury as putting a problem on Complainant’& rsquo; s spiritual expression by rejecting him the capability to make an application for a task that he otherwise would have had the ability to look for, due to his faith……. As such, a sensible jury might discover that this strained Complainant’& rsquo; s flexibility of expression which the policy was not directly customized to satisfy an engaging federal government interest, and hence summary judgment can not be approved in favor of Offenders. Nevertheless, the concern of whether the addition of the Declaration of Christian Faith in the application strained Complainant’& rsquo; s spiritual workout, provided Offenders’ & rsquo; assertion that the Declaration of Christian Faith was not really needed, produces a real disagreement of product reality, and, for that reason, summary judgment can not be approved in favor of Complainant, either.