2001: Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is a fundamentalist Christian group that attempts to evangelize students from kindergarten upwards. They find that if CEF succeeds in the religious conversion of a child, then their concept of salvation can sometimes spread to the child's entire family. CEF has created a series of Good News Clubs in public schools aimed at students aged 5 to 12. They typically meet immediately after the end of the final class of the day. The Milford Central School in Milford NY denied Rev. Stephen D. Fournier access to the public school for his club. His wife and daughter sued the school in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. The case is called The Good News Club v. Milford Central School.

Rev. Fournier said:

"I see this as a free speech case. I believe that we should have the same rights as any other group, and we shouldn't be excluded simply because we speak of God during the course of our club. It's a matter of wanting to use space in a building. We're not trying to start a national church. I don't want a national religion more than anyone else does." ₁

This case is special because the CEF classes start in the afternoon minutes after the final class -- not many hours later in the evening as in the Lamb's Chapel case in 1993. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State said:

"Public schools have every right to limit the use of their facilities to protect children from outside groups. This case deals with a religious group that targets children for evangelism. We believe the group does not have a constitutional right to evangelize on elementary school grounds right after classes end, and we hope the Supreme Court agrees." ₂

The school district's policy has been to rent rooms for "social, civic, and recreational meetings and entertainment events and other uses," but not to religious groups. The federal trial judge and a three judge panel of the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled against the club. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Eleven Attorneys General for the states of Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia. filed briefs in support of CEF. A joint brief, also in support of CEF, was filed by the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs; the National Council of Churches; the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists; the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; the American Muslim Council; the First Church of Christ, Scientist; the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); the General Board of Church & Society of the United Methodist Church and the A.M.E. Zion Church.

The U.S. Supreme Court accepted the appeal. During 2001-JUN they ruled in favor of CEF. Their ruling states in part that the majority of Justices:

"... disagreed that something that is 'quintessentially religious' or 'decidedly religious in nature' cannot also be characterized properly as the teaching of morals and character development from a particular viewpoint. What matters for purposes of the Free Speech Clause is that we can see no logical difference in kind between the invocation of Christianity by the Club and the invocation of teamwork, loyalty, or patriotism by other associations to provide a foundation for their lessons." ₈

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