WASHINGTON, DC, (CWNews.com) - The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a case questioning whether a school district can prevent a Christian students' group meeting in a room after school.
The case involved the Milford Central School in upstate New York and the Good News Club. School policy allows other outside groups to use its classrooms, but not the Christian group which gathered to read the Bible, sing songs, and pray.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist asked a lawyer for the school whether it showed "favoritism" to other groups and whether it had engaged in "kind of a heckler's veto" over the religious group's message. The school's lawyer, Frank Miller, said the group engaged in religious worship, and the school would be endorsing a particular religion by allowing its meetings. "We have a school, in effect, being utilized as a church," he said. Justice Antonin Scalia said a public facility was being used for public purposes and asked why religious purposes must be excluded.
Other justices also questioned whether the court's previous interpretations of the separation of church and state applied in this case, even asking whether the school was violating the principle of neutrality toward religion by singling it out for exclusion.
The Supreme Court will hand down its decision in the case by the end of June.