Section 9.9 Generally

• Library: School Law (2003 Ed. + 2016 Supp)

1. (§9.9) Generally

The use of public facilities for religious meetings pits the right of free association and free speech against prohibitions barring the establishment of a religion. The outcome of any given case may depend on whether the meeting is viewed as a public forum for free speech and association purposes.

In the higher education context, the United States Supreme Court held that the University of Missouri campus was a public forum because the University developed an established policy of affording student groups the opportunity to conduct meetings on the campus. Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981). The Court stated:

Having created a forum generally open to student groups, the University seeks to enforce a content-based exclusion of religious speech. Its exclusionary policy violates the fundamental principle that a state regulation of speech should be content-neutral, and the University is unable to justify this violation under applicable constitutional standards.

Id. at 277.

Students’ use of facilities for religious purposes is often governed by the federal Equal Access Act (EAA), Pub. L. No. 98-377, 98 Stat. 1302, 20 U.S.C. §§ 4071–74. The EAA defines a public secondary school to be a “limited open forum” whenever it offers one or more noncurriculum related...