Facts
- The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC), a state university, made facilities generally available for activities of registered student groups.
- Cornerstone, a registered student religious organization, had previously used university rooms for weekly meetings with permission.
- In 1977, Cornerstone sought regular weekly use of two rooms for meetings where “worship in the form of prayer and biblical teaching” would be important.
- UMKC denied the request under a regulation barring use of university buildings or grounds “for purposes of religious worship or religious teaching.”
- Student members sued, alleging violations of the First Amendment, including freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.
- The district court granted summary judgment to the university, reasoning the exclusion was justified (and required) by the Establishment Clause.
- The Eighth Circuit reversed, holding the rule was content-based discrimination against religious speech not justified by the Establishment Clause.
Issues
- Whether a public university that generally opens its facilities to registered student groups may exclude a religious student group’s worship and religious teaching consistent with the Free Speech Clause.
- Whether the Establishment Clause requires or justifies such an exclusion from an otherwise generally open forum.
Decision
- The Supreme Court affirmed the Eighth Circuit and held UMKC’s exclusion violated the First Amendment.
- By making facilities generally available to student groups, UMKC created a forum generally open for student use.
- Excluding Cornerstone based on the religious content of its speech was content-based discrimination and required strict scrutiny.
- Although compliance with the Establishment Clause is a compelling interest, an equal-access policy allowing religious and secular groups alike would not violate the Establishment Clause.
- Because equal access would be constitutional, the university could not justify the exclusion as necessary to avoid an establishment of religion.
Legal Principles
- When a public university creates a forum generally open to student groups, it may not exclude speech based on its content, including religious content, absent a regulation necessary to serve a compelling state interest and narrowly drawn to achieve that end.
- Equal access for religious and nonreligious student groups in an open forum is a neutral policy and does not, without more, constitute unconstitutional state advancement of religion.
- The government may not impose content-based restrictions on religious speech in a generally open forum merely to achieve a separation of church and state beyond what the Establishment Clause requires.
Conclusion
A public university that broadly opens its facilities to student groups must treat religious student speech on equal terms with secular speech; excluding worship and religious teaching from an otherwise open forum is unconstitutional content-based discrimination not justified by the Establishment Clause.