50 Iowa 11 | Iowa | 1878
I. In addition to the foregoing statement it may be proper to say that it was stipulated by the parties in the court below that the school-house in sub-district. No. 1 cost that district about two hundred dollars, in addition to its proportionate share of the cost of the house, and that a-small majority of the electors of the sub-district are opposed to the use of the house for religious worship.
In our opinion these facts cannot control the legal rights of' the parties, and they must be regarded merely as accounting for what would otherwise seem as an unreasonable refusal of the defendant Boget to carry out the wishes of a majority of the electors of ,the district township.
The main question in the case, then, is, did the district township electors have the legal power to direct the house to be used for the purposes aforesaid ?
We cannot regard this as an open question in this State. In Townsend v. Hagan et al., 35 Iowa, 194, it was held that the statute confers authority on the electors of the district, when legally assembled, “to direct the sale or other disposition to be made of any school-house,” and that the sub-director shall have the control and management of the schoolhouse in his sub-district, unless otherwise ordered by a vote of the district township meeting; and that when the electors of the township, by a direct vote, determined that the schoolhouses should be opened for religious worship and Sabbath schools, such order was valid, and was such a disposition of
It is argued that the permanent use of a public schoolhouse for religious worship is indirectly compelling the taxpayer to pay taxes for the building or repairing of places of worship.
Aside from the consideration that in Townsend v. Hagan, supra, it was determined that the district electors did have such power as is here complained of, and that such use was not unreasonable, we incline to think that the use of a public school building for Sabbath schools, religious meetings, debating clubs, temperance meetings and the like, and which, of necessity, must be occasional and temporary, is not so palpably a violation of the fundamental law as to justify the courts in interfering. Especially is this so where, as in the case at bar, abundant provision is made for securing any damages which the tax-payer may suffer by reason of the use of the house for the purposes named. With such precaution the
We may further say that the use for the purposes named is but temporary, occasional, and liable at any time to be denied by the district electors, and such occasional use does not convert the school-house into a building for worship, within the-meaning of the constitution. The same reasoning would make our halls of legislation places of worship, because in them, each morning, prayers are offered by chaplains.
Counsel for appellant have cited some cases which seem to hold a different rule from that here announced. We need not refer to them, in view of the construction placed upon our statute in Townsend v. Hagan, supra, and with which we are content.
Affirmed.