CONTACT:     STEVEN H. ADEN, 703-642-1070, x 3504

CHILD EVANGELISM FELLOWSHIP ASKS FEDERAL COURT FOR FINAL RULING ON  PUBLIC SCHOOL ACCESS

GREENBELT, MD – Attorneys for the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom filed a motion for summary judgment yesterday in Child Evangelism Fellowship v. Montgomery County Public Schools .  In the motion, Center attorneys ask a Maryland federal district court to permanently order the Montgomery County Public School District to give Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) the benefits the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit have ruled it is entitled to receive.  Among the benefits are the right to distribute fliers for CEF’s “Good News Clubs” and access to back-to-school nights, open houses, community bulletin boards, and community tables.  Despite the courts’ previous rulings, the school district continues to deny CEF several of these court-ordered benefits.

CLS Center attorneys and local counsel H. Robert Showers filed suit against the school district in January 2003 when the school district officials refused to distribute CEF’s informational fliers, despite the fact that they regularly distributed informational fliers for a number of other community organizations, including sports groups, Boy and Girl Scouts, performing arts groups, child care groups, health groups, and environmental groups.

The federal district court initially ordered the school district to grant CEF access to back-to-school nights, open houses, and community bulletin boards and tables.  The court declined, however, to order equal treatment of CEF’s fliers, and CEF appealed.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled in June 2004 that Supreme Court precedent required equal treatment of CEF’s informational fliers.   

Despite the courts’ earlier rulings, the school district continues to deny CEF some of the same benefits offered to other community groups, including access to the district’s flier distribution system.  CLS Center attorneys are now asking the district court to make permanent the relief it has already determined CEF is entitled to receive and to award CEF nominal damages for the school district’s continuing violation of CEF’s constitutional rights.

“We are hopeful that the district court will move quickly to confirm and make permanent its prior order requiring equal treatment of the Good News Club and lend clarity and direction on this issue to school administrators and parents,” said CLS Center Chief Litigation Counsel Steven H. Aden.