Anderson, South Carolina – Child Evangelism Fellowship, which sponsors the Good News Club, a religious after-school club for elementary school children, filed a federal lawsuit against Anderson School District 5 seeking access to the District facilities after the District insisted on charging the club a discriminatory access fee. Child Evangelism Fellowship is represented by Mathew Staver, President and General Counsel for Liberty Counsel, and Joel Oster, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel.

In July of 2003, Dawn Badger, Director of Child Evangelism of South Carolina, requested to use District facilities to hold a Good News Club after school hours. According to District Policy KG, any “formally constituted non-profit” group may use District facilities. While the District imposes a fee for using District facilities, it waives such fees whenever the District deems it “to be in the best interest of the district.” Although the District has waived the fee for such groups as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the YMCA after-school-care program, it refused to grant a fee waiver to the Good News Club. The District concluded that granting a fee waiver to the Good News Club would “not be in the best interest of the District”, even though the Club, like other groups, teaches about morals and character development. Unless the Court strikes down the discriminatory fee, the Good News Club will be forced to stop the Club next year.

According to Staver, placing a financial barrier based on the religious viewpoint of groups seeking to access public property violates the right to free speech. Staver commented, “Whether the school bans a group from accessing its facilities because of the group’s religious viewpoint, or places a financial barrier on the group based on its religious viewpoint, the outcome is the same – the Constitution has been violated. Equal access means equal treatment.”

Staver stated: “The School Policy is astounding in light of the fact that the United States Supreme Court has already ruled that it is unconstitutional to prohibit Christian groups from using public school facilities when secular groups are permitted to do so. Even the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs South Carolina, ruled that a discriminatory fee policy against religious organizations is unconstitutional.” Staver remarked, “One thing is clear – a policy excluding persons or groups from using school facilities, or one that imposes discriminatory fees for similar groups solely because of their religious viewpoint, is unconstitutional.”