A federal district court in California granted Liberty Counsel a preliminary injunction on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) and its Good News Clubs giving them equal access to school facilities which had been unlawfully denied by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). The injunction requires school officials to give CEF’s after school clubs access on an equal basis as other similarly situated clubs operated by non-religious groups.

In December 2024, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit on behalf of CEF NorCal East Bay after the OUSD denied it equal access to four different campuses on religious grounds, pretextual schemes, and even by silence over a two-year period. Liberty Counsel argued that these discriminatory denials violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments and California state law.

U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. agreed stating in the injunction that the “law and facts clearly favor” Liberty Counsel’s argument that “OUSD violated CEF’s free speech rights.”

With this preliminary injunction, Liberty Counsel will now ultimately seek a permanent injunction against OUSD’s unconstitutional actions so the Good News Clubs can retain access to these public school campuses alongside other groups, such as Girls on the Run and Berkeley Chess School.

Prior to the COVID pandemic, OUSD had allowed CEF NorCal East Bay to host Good News Clubs on its campuses. In response to COVID, the school district cancelled all clubs in Spring 2020. However, when CEF requested to resume the Good News Clubs throughout the Spring and Fall of 2023, elementary school officials responded with a variety of denials. In several of the denials, school officials overtly displayed religious viewpoint discrimination stating that CEF was not a “good match,” and “we are not in support of Evangelism on our campus.” The district also denied CEF NorCal East Bay because there was “no space” available even when spaces were listed as available online, and also failed to grant the organization’s “community partnership” application over “its religious programming.” 

While OUSD argued that allowing CEF to use school facilities would have violated the Establishment Clause, Judge Gilliam rejected that argument using U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Since the clubs are held after school hours, not sponsored by the school, and open to any student who obtained parental consent, the Good News Clubs cannot be denied based on their religious viewpoint, and OUSD is “simply wrong as a matter of well-established law,” wrote Judge Gilliam.

CEF NorCal East Bay is a non-profit organization and subsidiary of Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc., an international non-profit children’s ministry. CEF Good News Clubs positively impact the lives of children and their families. Good News Clubs typically meet once per week, immediately after school, and are led by trained and vetted local community volunteers. The clubs provide religious and other teaching and activities to encourage learning, spiritual growth, and service to others, as well as social, emotional, character, and leadership development. Good News Clubs do not charge any fee and welcome children with written permission from parents. 

In June 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court in Good News Club v. Milford Central School ruled that public schools violate the First Amendment by not providing equal access and equal treatment to Christian clubs when the school has opened the forum to secular clubs. 

Liberty Counsel has represented hundreds of CEF cases nationally and has never lost a case involving Good News Clubs.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This is a great victory for Child Evangelism Fellowship, parents, and the students in Oakland public schools.  The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities. Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a biblically based education that includes moral and character development. Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school.”