Lamb's Chapel and John Steigerwald v. Center Moriches Union Free School District et al. (508 U.S. 384)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 7, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 508 U.S. 384 · 113 S. Ct. 2141
- Decided
- June 7, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. New York Edue. Law §414 (McKinney 1988 and Supp. 1993) authorizes local school boards to adopt reasonable regulations for the use of school property for 10 specified purposes when the property is not in use for school purposes. Among the permitted uses is the holding of “social, civic and recreational meetings and entertainments, and other uses pertaining to the welfare of the community; but such meetings, entertainment and uses shall be non-exclusive and shall be open to the general public.” § 414(c). The list of permitted uses does not include meetings for religious purposes, and a New York appellate court in Trietley v. Board of Ed. of Buffalo, 409 N. Y. S. 2d 912, 915 (App. Div. 1978), ruled that local boards could not allow student bible clubs to meet on school property because “[r]eligious purposes are not included in the enumerated purposes for which a school may be used under section 414.” In Deeper Life Christian Fellowship, Inc. v. Sobol, 948 F. 2d 79, 88-84 (1991), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit accepted Trietley as an authoritative interpretation of state law. Furthermore, the Attorney General of New York supports Trietley as an appropriate approach to deciding this case. Pursuant to §414’s empowerment of local school districts, the Board of Center Moriches Union Free School District (District) has…
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