QUESTION

THE FINAL PROJECT
PART I: THE CIRAC MEMO
In Part I of the Cumulative Assessment Project, each student is required to submit an
individual CIRAC memo based on the following scenario:
An action was brought by parents against Unionville School District challenging the school
board’s policy, which permits nonstudents to disseminate Bibles and other religious
materials in public schools during school hours. The parents claim that Unionville’s policy
violates the Establishment Clause. Your firm has been retained to represent the
Unionville School District (“Unionville”), a West Virginia Public School in the action.
The background of the dispute is as follows:
Unionville, has, for some years now, allowed non-student, private groups such as Little
League, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union to
distribute literature in its public schools.
In accordance with written school policy, Unionville has traditionally denied groups
wishing to distribute religious or political materials the same access to the schools.
However, three years ago, in response to a request by a local religious group, and in an
attempt to blunt discrimination against private religious and political speech, Unionville
interpreted its written policy so as to allow the passive distribution of religious (and
political) material in the schools.
Pursuant to this new policy, Unionville designated a single day during the year on which
private religious groups can make Bibles or other religious material available on tables set
up in accessible locations, such as halls or libraries, in the Unionville schools, during school
hours. The table displays are set up and stocked entirely by private citizens who are not
affiliated in any way with the schools, and the tables bear signs informing students only
that they should feel free to take the Bibles or other material offered. Pursuant to district
court injunction, the tables also bear a disclaimer, renouncing any sponsorship or
endorsement by the school. No one is allowed to enter classrooms to announce the
availability of the religious or political material, or to stand at the tables to encourage or
pressure students to take the material. No school announcement or assembly is allowed
to mark the availability of the Bibles or any other religious or political material. School
principals are charged with ensuring strict compliance with these guidelines.
Your attorney wants you to prepare a CIRAC memo that explains whether Unionville’s
policy, which permits nonstudents to disseminate Bibles and other religious materials (on
one designated day) in public schools during school hours, violates the Establishment
Clause.

ANSWER

MEMORANDUM

TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
This memo addresses whether the policy at Unionville School District that allows for
Bibles and other religious readings to be distributed in public schools during school hours
violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. We will rely on the Good News Club
and Sante Fe cases and apply the Lemon v. Kurtzman test in our analysis.
Facts:
 Unionville School District in West Virginia allows the distribution of literature in public
schools to be conducted by nonstudent and private groups.
 Unionville School has denied access to wishful groups intending to distribute political or
religious materials.
 Three years away, the school, through its policy’s interpretation, allowed for the
distribution of both political and religious materials on one particular day within the year
in the schools.
 Those materials are managed by individuals who are not affiliated with the schools and
are available in accessible areas such as library tables and school halls.
 Such tables have distinctive signs intended to inform students of the readings, and tables
bear signs telling students that they are allowed to take the lessons and a disclaimer that
renounces any forms of endorsement or sponsorship.

 The school does not have any protocol that encourages students to look into the materials
or to check and mark their availability.
 School principals are charged with ensuring strict compliance with these guidelines
Issue:
Whether Unionville's policy, which permits nonstudents to disseminate Bibles and other
religious materials in public schools during school hours on one designated day per year, violates
the Establishment Clause
Rule:
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." In determining
whether a policy violates the Establishment Clause, courts apply the three-part test from Lemon
v. Kurtzman, which requires that the policy have a secular legislative purpose, that its principal
or primary effect be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and that it does not foster an
excessive government entanglement with religion
Analysis:
The Good News Club case (Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98
(2001)) involved a challenge to a public school's policy allowing outside groups to use its
facilities after hours, including a Christian youth organization that sought to hold meetings in
which it taught moral values and character development from a biblical perspective. The
Supreme Court held that the school's policy did not violate the Establishment Clause, finding that
the policy was neutral and did not endorse or favor any particular religion, and that the use of the
school's facilities by the Good News Club was private speech and not government speech

Similarly, in Sante Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000), the Supreme
Court considered a challenge to a school district's policy allowing student-led...

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