Widmar v. Vincent

454 U.S. 263 (1981)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

It is the stated policy of the University of Missouri at Kansas City (D) to encourage the activities of student organizations. D officially recognizes over 100 student groups. It routinely provides D facilities for the meetings of registered organizations. Students pay an activity fee of $ 41 per semester (1978-1979) to help defray the costs to D. From 1973 until 1977 a registered religious group named Cornerstone (P) regularly sought and received permission to conduct its meetings in University facilities. In 1977, D informed the group that it could no longer meet in University buildings. The exclusion was based on a regulation, adopted by the Board of Curators in 1972, that prohibits the use of University buildings or grounds 'for purposes of religious worship or religious teaching.' Ps, all members of Cornerstone, brought suit to challenge the regulation. Ps alleged discrimination against religious activity and discussion violated their rights to free exercise of religion, equal protection, and freedom of speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The District Court upheld the challenged regulation as required, by the Establishment Clause of the Federal Constitution. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed. It viewed D's regulation as a content-based discrimination against religious speech, for which it could find no compelling justification. The court held that the Establishment Clause does not bar a policy of equal access, in which facilities are open to groups and speakers of all kinds. Under equal access, the 'primary effect' would not be to advance religion, but rather to further the neutral purpose of developing students' ''social and cultural awareness as well as [their] intellectual curiosity.'' D appealed.