NEW YORK-Today, the Supreme Court made its decision on the case of Bronx Household of Faith v. New York City Board of Education, No. 11-386 today. The Court decided against reviewing the case and rejected the churches appeal, letting stand a lower courts ruling.

This decision now finalizes the 16 year old case against the New York Board of Education. The Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical Christian church, had sought to use a local school, P.S. 15 in the Bronx, for Sunday religious services in 1994, but was turned down. The church filed a suit against that state’s board of Education and lost. The church appealed. The appeals court decided that if permission were granted, it would violate the Constitutional requirement of the separation of church and state. A federal judge granted an injunction granting the church access for services until the case was ultimately decided.

New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, who opposed the appeal, said, “Children — especially younger children — are very impressionable and vulnerable; they think in absolutes, and they are likely to misconstrue a congregation’s use of their school for its worship services as their beliefs being sponsored or supported by the school.”

The city of New York say that approximately five dozen churches used public schools for their services in 2009.