4th Circuit Upholds Good News Club Challenge To School

Yesterday in Child Evangelism Fellowship of South Carolina v. Anderson School District Five, (4th Cir., Dec. 15, 2006), the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and found that the unfettered discretion given to South Carolina school officials to waive fees for use of school facilities violates the First Amendment. Child Evangelism Fellowship had been denied a fee waiver for religious Good News Club meetings it wished to hold in the school. The court found that permitting fee waivers when it is "in the district’s best interest" could invite administrators to discriminate on the basis of content or viewpoint of a group's speech. (See prior posting on lower court’s decision.) The Associated Press reported on the 4th Circuit’s decision.