Federal Court Rules That Schools Must Stop Discriminating against "Good News Clubs"
"Good News Clubs are good news for kids. Every public school ought to have a Good News Club. The kids love them, parents appreciate them, and the First Amendment protects them…."
(Williamsburg, VA)—Today, a federal court ruled in favor of Child Evangelism Fellowship of Virginia (CEF), granting an injunction against the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools. The court ruled that the school board engaged in unconstitutional discrimination by charging CEF a fee for holding after-school Good News Clubs at area schools, while granting free use to Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and other organizations. Liberty Counsel represents CEF.
The opinion pointed out a problem with the school board's policy that "empowers its superintendent to decide which organizations are allowed to have fee waivers without setting forth any concrete standards." The court also cited an appeals court ruling in a case Liberty Counsel won on behalf of another CEF group in South Carolina. "The Fourth Circuit made it clear, in its holding in Anderson, that a fee-waiver given arbitrarily to non-religious organizations by school administrators under the guise of enforcing a vague policy is a violation of a religious organization's First Amendment rights."
The school board argued that it was required to discriminate against CEF because federal law mandates equal access to school facilities for patriotic organizations like the Boy Scouts, but not CEF. The school board ignored the fact that the United States Supreme Court has already ruled that Good News Clubs must have the same access to school facilities as similar after-school programs like the Boy Scouts. By requiring the fee, the school district imposed a discriminatory burden on CEF that prevented the Good News Clubs from expanding its free program to other schools in the district.
After-school Good News Clubs teach children respect, good citizenship, moral values and character development from a Biblical perspective. Liberty Counsel has obtained victories for CEF in numerous states from coast to coast and resorts to litigation when school districts do not reverse unequal treatment of Good News Clubs. A school cannot exclude a Good News Club from its facilities because of its identity or religious viewpoint.
Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: "Good News Clubs are good news for kids. Every public school ought to have a Good News Club. The kids love them, parents appreciate them, and the First Amendment protects them. Of all places, Good News Clubs should have been welcome in Williamsburg and James City, the birthplaces of American liberty. Now they are welcome."
