Supreme Court won't hear Bible club case

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

SPANAWAY -- Each morning, the high school here sets aside class time so students can receive tutoring, do homework or attend club meetings.

One of those clubs is the Bible club, and it has touched off a slew of controversy that's reverberated across the country.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the club, called World Changers, should be treated the same as other clubs and allowed to use school space and supplies.

Attorneys for the Bethel School District superintendent argued that a federal appeals court was far out of bounds when it ruled in favor of the Bible club last year.

Yesterday, though, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, which means the lower court's ruling stands.

The case began in the fall of 1997, when Tausha Prince, then a sophomore at the Tacoma-area school, asked the school district for permission to form World Changers.

But officials said that because the club was a religious group, it could not be set up as a regular student group.

That meant World Changers could not use a pool of money for club activities. Members could not make announcements over the school's public-address system, and they were limited to posting notices on one bulletin board rather than throughout the school.

Prince argued the school district violated her First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion, as well as the Equal Access Act, a 1984 law forbidding public schools that take federal money from excluding religious or political extracurricular clubs if they allow others.

But officials with the Bethel district maintained that it allowed Prince and her classmates in World Changers to meet at school by establishing a separate category of student-run religious organizations.

The school noted that the club's stated goals include a pledge to "Evangelize our campus for Jesus Christ," and to "teach students that Jesus Christ is the Answer to the confusion, pain and uncertainty this world offers."

The First Amendment says government will not establish religion, a term that has come to mean a general ban on government promotion or endorsement of religion.

The First Amendment also guarantees government will not interfere with the "free exercise" of religion.

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