secular purpose prong

The University of Virginia, an instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Virginia, maintains a Student Activities Fund financed by a mandatory $14 per semester fee assessed to each full-time student. The fund supports extracurricular student activities related to the University's educational purpose through payments to third-party contractors for approved groups that qualify as Contracted Independent Organizations. To obtain CIO status, a student group must be composed primarily of University students, file its constitution, pledge nondiscrimination, and agree to a disclaimer stating that it is independent of the University. CIO publications are eligible for printing-cost reimbursement if their content is related to the University's educational purpose, but the Guidelines expressly exclude funding for any activity that primarily promotes or manifests a particular belief in or about a deity or an ultimate reality. In 1990, University of Virginia undergraduates formed Wide Awake Productions as a CIO and began publishing Wide Awake: A Christian Perspective at the University of Virginia. The first issue contained articles on racism, crisis pregnancy, prayer, C. S. Lewis, and reviews of religious music, each marked by a cross; subsequent issues addressed homosexuality, missionary work, eating disorders, and Christian theology, with advertisements from churches and Christian bookstores. In 1991, Wide Awake Productions requested $5,862 from the Student Activities Fund to cover printing costs for one issue. The Appropriations Committee of the Student Council denied the request on the ground that the publication constituted a religious activity under the Guidelines. Wide Awake Productions appealed the denial through the Student Council and the Student Activities Committee, which upheld the decision. The group and three of its student editors and members then filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the refusal to pay printing costs violated their rights under the First Amendment Speech, Press, and Free Exercise Clauses and the Equal Protection Clause. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the District Court ruled for the University. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.

Lamb’s Chapel, an evangelical church in Center Moriches, New York, and its pastor John Steigerwald twice applied to the Center Moriches Union Free School District for permission to use school facilities after hours to show a six-part film series containing lectures by Dr. James Dobson. A brochure provided to the District described Dr. Dobson as a licensed psychologist, former associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California, best-selling author, and radio commentator, and outlined the series’ focus on returning to traditional Christian family values to counter media influences, with each of the six parts addressing specific family and child-rearing topics. The District denied both applications, stating that the film appeared to be church related. The District operated under New York Education Law § 414, which authorized local boards to permit after-hours uses of school property for social, civic, and recreational meetings open to the public, and had adopted rules allowing such uses as well as political uses while barring religious purposes. Shortly before these applications, the Church had also sought permission to use the facilities for Sunday morning services and Sunday School, which the District denied on the same religious-purpose ground, though that denial was not challenged in court. The Church filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York against the District and the New York Attorney General. The complaint alleged that the denials violated the Free Speech and Assembly Clauses, the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, all under color of state law pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The District Court granted summary judgment for the defendants on all claims. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the District Court’s judgment in all respects. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in 1992.

The Cleveland City School District enrolled more than 75,000 children, the majority from low-income and minority families, and had been among the worst performing public schools in the nation for more than a generation. In 1995, a federal district court declared a crisis and placed the district under state control, after which the state auditor found an unprecedented crisis in American education. Shortly thereafter, Ohio enacted the Pilot Project Scholarship Program to provide financial assistance to families in the district. The program offers tuition aid for students in kindergarten through eighth grade to attend participating public or private schools of their parents' choosing and tutorial aid for students remaining in public school. Tuition aid is distributed to parents based on financial need, with low-income families receiving priority and up to 90 percent of tuition costs covered, and checks are made payable to parents who endorse them to the chosen school. Any private school within the district meeting statewide standards may participate, as may public schools in adjacent districts, and participating schools may not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic background. In the 1999-2000 school year, 56 private schools participated, 46 of which had a religious affiliation, and more than 3,700 students took part in the scholarship program, with 96 percent enrolling in religiously affiliated schools. The program operates alongside community schools, which are publicly funded but independently run and may not have religious affiliation, and magnet schools emphasizing particular subjects or methods, which together enrolled thousands of additional students. Respondents, a group of Ohio taxpayers, first challenged the program in state court in 1996 on state and federal grounds. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the federal claims but found a procedural violation under the state constitution that the legislature promptly cured. In July 1999, respondents filed suit in federal district court seeking to enjoin the program on Establishment Clause grounds. In December 1999, the District Court granted summary judgment for respondents. In December 2000, a divided panel of the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the District Court, finding that the program had the "primary effect" of advancing religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, 533 U. S. 976 (2001), and reversed the Court of Appeals.

The village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, New York, is a religious enclave of Satmar Hasidim, practitioners of a strict form of Judaism. In 1977, the Satmars incorporated the village within the town of Monroe after negotiating boundaries that included only the 320 acres they owned and inhabited. The village has a population of about 8,500 today, and its residents interpret the Torah strictly, segregate the sexes outside the home, speak Yiddish primarily, and educate their children in private religious schools, with boys attending the United Talmudic Academy and girls attending Bais Rochel. These private schools do not offer special education services to handicapped children, who are entitled to such services under state and federal law. Starting in 1984, the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District provided these services at an annex to Bais Rochel, but ended the arrangement in 1985 following the Supreme Court's decisions in Aguilar v. Felton and School District of Grand Rapids v. Ball. Handicapped children from Kiryas Joel were then sent to public schools outside the village, leading most parents to withdraw them due to the children's panic, fear, and trauma from the cultural differences, with some seeking administrative review. By 1989, only one child from Kiryas Joel attended Monroe-Woodbury's public schools. In response, the New York Legislature passed Chapter 748 of the 1989 New York Laws, which constituted the village of Kiryas Joel as a separate school district with all the powers of a union free school district. The new district currently operates only a special education program for handicapped children, serving just over 40 full-time students, while other village children remain in parochial schools. Several months before the new district began operations, the New York State School Boards Association and respondents Grumet and Hawk brought an action challenging Chapter 748 under the National and State Constitutions. The trial court ruled for the plaintiffs on summary judgment, finding the statute unconstitutional under the Lemon test. A divided Appellate Division affirmed, and the New York Court of Appeals affirmed on the federal Establishment Clause question while reserving the state constitutional issue. The Supreme Court stayed the mandate and granted certiorari.