Classrooms Open to Faith Groups

June 12--An evangelical Christian group has a right to meet after-hours in public-school classrooms despite the religious content of the group's meetings.

So says the US Supreme Court in an important church-state decision that may help pave the way for Bush administration plans to expand government partnerships with faith-based social-service groups.

In a 6-to-3 decision Monday, the high court ruled that if the Milford, N.Y., school board offers access to various groups holding after-school meetings, the board may not refuse the same access to the Good News Club, an evangelical group that targets grade-school kids, simply because the board has deemed it too religiously oriented.

The decision marks an important development in the court's evolution on church-state issues. It clarifies how government organizations must treat faith-based groups. Specifically, it demonstrates what it means for the government to be neutral toward such groups.

"When Milford denied the Good News Club access to the school's limited public forum on the ground that the Club was religious in nature, it discriminated against the Club because of its religious viewpoint in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment," writes Justice Clarence Thomas for the majority.

The court ruled that the meetings after school amounted to a form of private speech that is protected by the First Amendment. The school board had argued in part that permitting the club to meet in school facilities would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the school board.

But the court ruled that if the school maintained a policy granting private groups access to classrooms after school, then the school board cannot deny similar access to one particular group because of its religious orientation.

"The court has had a remarkably consistent rule for 40 years on issues like this that private religious speech, even on public property, is protected," says Douglas Laycock, a University of Texas church-state scholar.

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