Groups Ask High Court to Back Students’ Religious Meetings

Organizations embracing 120 million Christians have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the right of public high school students to meet for religious purposes in extracurricular periods on an equal basis with other student groups.

Friend-of-court briefs backing that position were filed by the U.S. Catholic Conference, including about 50 million Catholics, and by major Protestant bodies, totalling about 70 million.

They contend that a Williamsport, Pa., high school, in prohibiting a group of students from holding religious meeting before class hours, violated the students’ rights of free speech “solely because of its religious content.”

The Catholic Conference argued that the ban goes beyond separation of church and state and “erects instead a barrier of hostility to religion.” The school allows various groups, such as a band, language club, homemakers and ecology club to meet, but refused to allow student meetings for prayer and Bible study.

A federal appeals court upheld the ban, and the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case next October.

The National Council of Churches, National Association of Evangelicals and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) were among Protestant bodies joining in a brief prepared mainly by the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.

Congress last August passed legislation requiring “equal access” by public school groups, including religious ones.