Supreme Court Case Could Support Bush's Faith-Based Initiative

March 1, 2001

Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 1, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported that "the Supreme Court took up the question Wednesday of whether an evangelical Christian group has a constitutional right to meet for prayer and Bible study in a public elementary school at the end of the day...Most of the justices sided with the Christian group and against school officials during the oral argument." A ruling in favor of the Good News Club, an evangelical Christian group with 4,622 chapters nationwide, "could give an important boost to President Bush's 'faith-based' initiative...The school board's lawyer said that 'religious worship' was not an appropriate activity in a public school building." Several of the justices countered that "the Christian groups have a free-speech right to meet in public schools."