Here's a story from the AP. What do you (or, to use the proper and incredibly useful grammar of my adopted state, "y'all") think? Is it a quasi-Grendel's Den case or something of the sort? A direct Establishment Clause problem insofar as it involves granting governmental or quasi-governmental status to a church itself? A Kiryas Joel-type case insofar as it grants a governmental privilege or status that might or might not be granted to, say, a mosque or some other organization? (Not that I'm crazy about that aspect of the Kiryas Joel ruling.) Or, insofar as state law allows the state to empower various entities to have police forces, is it constitutional because respectful of equal access to governmental benefits or privileges?
Paul Horwitz University of Alabama School of Law MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – The Alabama Senate has voted to allow a church to form its own police force. Lawmakers on Tuesday voted 24-4 to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham to establish a law enforcement department. The church says it needs its own police officers to keep its school as well as its more than 4,000 person congregation safe. Critics of the bill argue that a police department that reports to church officials could be used to cover up crimes. The state has given a few private universities the authority to have a police force, but never a church or non-school entity. Police experts have said such a police department would be unprecedented in the U.S. A similar bill is also scheduled to be debated in the House on Tuesday.
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