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The Smithsonian has a policy stated in the NY Times article

'Mr. Kremer said he heard about the event only on Thursday. He added  
that staff members viewed the film before approving the event to make  
sure that it complied with the museum's policy, which states that  
"events of a religious or partisan political nature" are not  
permitted, along with personal events such as weddings, or fund- 
raisers, raffles and cash bars. It also states that "all events at  
the National Museum of Natural History are co-sponsored by the museum."'

So, this goes considerably beyond renting to anyone who seems  
unlikely to trash the place.  They explicitly say that they are "co- 
sponsors" of the event.  That said, I would be willing to bet that an  
over-eager manager responsible for income is behind this.  I wouldn't  
see it as a shift toward endorsing ID.  It will be very interesting  
to see how they get themselves out of this mess, as it is all to easy  
to see how they got themselves into it.

Eric Siegel
>

David Smith wrot that he suspected [clip]

> primary criteria used by most organizations is that the group can pay
> and they are not likely to trash the place.
>

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