Riverside, California – Today, Child Evangelism Fellowship (“CEF”), which sponsors the Good News Club, filed a Temporary Restraining Order, against the Bear Valley Unified School District after the District contended that state law requires it to discriminate against religious groups. CEF is represented by Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, and Rena Lindevaldsen, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel. Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.

California state law requires that public school facilities be open to the public for after-school use. Although the District complies with this law, it established a discriminatory usage fee in which religious groups are charged but secular groups are not. The District Policy forbids free use of school facilities for “services and events conducted by religious groups.” A letter from the District stated that the state Education Code, the California Constitution article 9, § 8, and article 16, § 5 require the District to charge CEF direct costs for use of facilities because they “prohibit[] the use of any public funds or public facilities for sectarian purposes.”

In December 2003, CEF applied to use the District facilities after school for a Good News Club, which is a club for elementary-age students that teaches morals and character development from a Christian viewpoint. After unsuccessfully exchanging several letters in an attempt to resolve the issue, the District’s imposition of a fee on CEF resulted in CEF not being able to meet during the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 school years. The suit filed today in federal court requests an emergency hearing seeking a court order allowing CEF to use the facilities beginning this school year.

According to Staver, “Imposing a financial barrier on speech solely because of its religious viewpoint violates the right to free speech. Whether the government bans a group from accessing its facilities or places a financial barrier on the group based on its religious viewpoint, the outcome is the same – the Constitution has been violated. Equal access means equal treatment.”

Staver noted, “The Unites States Supreme Court in Good News Club v. Milford Central School District already ruled that the First Amendment trumps any state law that discriminates against speech based on its religious viewpoint. School districts are not excused from obeying the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech by claiming that a state law requires the suppressing of religious speech.”