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Appeals court revives school Bible club lawsuit
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit by Christian students who claimed their Washington state school district unfairly refused to recognize their Bible study club as a school-sponsored group.
The students at Kentridge High School in Kent, Washington, near Seattle, sought affiliation with the Associated Student Body Council, which would have afforded their Bible study group, called Truth, access to student council funds, school property and facilities, and rights to post materials around the school.
The ruling is the latest in a long-running battle over the place of religion in U.S. public schools.
The Associated Student Body Council and the Kent School District rejected Truth's proposed charter, partly because it limited membership to Christians.
The students sued, claiming the school district provided waivers to other groups that limited membership based on gender or sexual preference but refused to grant one to a religious group.
In reversing the district court's dismissal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the group had "raised a triable issue of fact."
The appellate judges added, however, that Truth's case faced a couple of potential roadblocks at trial.
The court noted that federal law allowed "separate but equal" gender discrimination in school and youth activities, and that the Kent School District allowed two other schools to grant ASB recognition to bible groups "that do not discriminate in their membership criteria."
The court sent the case back to the district court to determine whether Truth was unfairly denied an exemption from the district's nondiscrimination policy based on religion or the content of its speech.
"Christian clubs have the same constitutional rights as every other club. To discriminate against them on the basis of their beliefs is clearly unconstitutional," said Greg Scott, spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, the Christian legal alliance that brought the case on the students' behalf.
An attorney for the school district could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Cooney)
