Legal Essay The to

Facts. The facts of the case were that Milford Central School in New York State made available to residents of its school district its facilities for various after school community purposes such as educational instruction and other social, civic, recreational and other uses. Pursuant to its policy, it denied use of its building to Good News Club, a private Christian organization which wanted to use it "to sing songs, hear Bible lessons, memorize scripture, and pray," uses which the School deemed to be religious (Good News).

Proceedings Below. The Club sued the School in Federal District Court which granted the School summary judgment on the grounds that its actions did not amount to viewpoint discrimination in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The Second Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in order to resolve a conflict in the lower circuit courts of appeal concerning whether speech can be excluded from a limited public forum on the basis of the religious nature of the speech on either free speech or Establishment Clause grounds.

Holding of the Supreme Court. By a six to three majority, the Court reversed the holdings below on the grounds that the actions of the School amounted to viewpoint discrimination by the State in violation of the Club's free speech rights but did not constitute a violation of the Establishment Clause.

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ren were involved rather than University students as in Lamb's Chapel and Rosenberger is irrelevant because the Court had never before given significance to such a distinction in Establishment Clause cases; and (4) Thomas denied that Establishment Clause jurisprudence should be extended to proscribe a group's religious activity "on the basis of what the youngest members of the audience might misperceive." Reasoning of the Concurring and Dissenting Justices. In concurring, both Justices Stephen Breyer and Sandra O'Connor, while agreeing that viewpoint discrimination had occurred, pointed out that neutrality alone was not a sufficient basis for validating otherwise proscribable state aid to religion. Justice Antonin Scalia went further than the majority by stating flatly that religious speech could not be proscribed so long as the school's policy was neutral toward all religions, a position he previously took in his concurring opinion in Lamb's Chapel. Both Stevens and Souter found the Club's activities clearly to fall into the area of religious proselytizing and Souter "an evangelical service of worship" which in his view was beyond the pale of constitutionally permitted bases for access. Assessment of the Case The majority's
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Approximate Word count = 1624
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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