BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE WESTSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS v. MERGENS

Legal Principle at Issue

Whether the federal Equal Access Act prohibited a public high school from denying a student religious group permission to meet on school premises during non-instructional time, and if so, whether that Act violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Action

Affirmed (includes modified). Petitioning party did not receive a favorable disposition.

Facts/Syllabus

Westside High School, a public secondary school that receives federal financial assistance, permits its students to join, on a voluntary basis, a number of recognized groups and clubs, all of which meet after school hours on school premises. Citing the Establishment Clause and a School Board policy requiring clubs to have faculty sponsorship, petitioner school officials denied the request of respondent Bridget Mergens for permission to form a Christian club that would have the same privileges and meet on the same terms and conditions as other Westside student groups, except that it would have no faculty sponsor. 

After the Board voted to uphold the denial, respondents — current and former Westside students — brought suit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. They alleged that the refusal to permit the proposed club to meet at Westside violated the Equal Access Act, which prohibits public secondary schools that receive federal assistance and that maintain a "limited open forum" from denying "equal access" to students who wish to meet within the forum on the basis of the "religious, political, philosophical, or other content" of the speech at such meetings. 

In reversing the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska entry of judgment for petitioners, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that the Act applied to forbid discrimination against respondents' proposed club on the basis of its religious content, and that the Act did not violate the Establishment Clause.