Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990 TAG: 9006050289
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
It does not violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state when high schools give the same access to religious groups accorded such extracurricular activities as chess or scuba diving clubs, the court said.
The 8-1 ruling in a Nebraska case upheld the Equal Access Act of 1984, in which Congress said public high schools accepting federal aid must not discriminate against groups based on "the religious, political, philosophical or other content of the speech at such meetings."
The ruling was cheered by conservatives and religious fundamentalists. But adherents of strict church-state separation and some educators said it could lead to religious coercion of impressionable youngsters.
In other action, the court:
Ruled 8-1 in a case from Illinois that police undercover agents may seek to elicit confessions from jailed suspects without first warning them of their right to remain silent or to a lawyer's help.
Agreed to study the government's power to lift price controls on some natural gas, a case that has tens of millions of dollars at stake for consumers.
In the student prayer case, the court overruled Omaha, Neb., school officials who refused in 1985 to approve a Christian Bible-reading club at Westside High School.
The Supreme Court's ruling will not affect Roanoke because there are no organized Bible-study clubs in the schools, according to city and county officials.
A recently publicized case in Shenandoah County also is unaffected by the Supreme Court's mandate.
A federal judge ruled that W.W. Robinson Elementary School was violating the constitutional separation of church and state by allowing the Weekday Religious Education Organization to hold classes in buses or trailers parked on or near public-school grounds.
However, the court's ruling only applies to student prayer and Bible-study groups, not privately run organizations.
In Botetourt County, the Weekday Religious Education Organization conducts religion classes for schoolchildren, although the Botetourt program was not affected by the Shenandoah County lawsuit. It also apparently will not be affected by Monday's court ruling.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the court that the Equal Access Act passes a three-part test the court created in 1971 to assure separation of church and state.
She said the 1984 law treats secular and religious speech equally, does not have the primary effect of advancing religion and does not cause excessive entanglement between government and religion.
"A school that permits a student-initiated and student-led religious club to meet after school, just as it permits any other student group to do, does not convey a message of state approval or endorsement of the particular religion," she said.
O'Connor also cautioned that, under the law passed by Congress, schools may not deny meeting space to "a Jewish students' club, a Young Democrats club or a philosophy club devoted to the study of Nietzsche."
Justice John Paul Stevens, the lone dissenter, previously suggested schools might be forced to provide a meeting room for the Ku Klux Klan or a club advocating drug use.
But O'Connor noted that the federal law allows school authorities to ban disruptive groups.
Reacting to the ruling, John Buchanan of People for the American Way said, "The court has opened wide the schoolhouse door to religious study and worship, leaving impressionable children to assume that such clubs are part and parcel of the school-approved daily instructions."
Beverly LaHaye, president of Concerned Women for America, applauded Monday's ruling. "The Supreme Court has ruled against religious apartheid in American high schools," she said. "To exclude student religious groups from meeting on campus is nothing more than bigoted discrimination."
Staff writer Christina A. Samuels contributed information to this story.
by CNB