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41 Am. U. L. Rev. 221 (1991-1992)
Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens: Three R's + Religion = Mergens

handle is hein.journals/aulr41 and id is 231 raw text is: NOTE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF WESTSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS v MERGENS: THREE R's + RELIGION = MERGENS LEAH GALLANT MORGENSTEIN The public school is at once the symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny. In no activity of the State is it more vital to keep out divisive forces than in its schools, to avoid confusing, not to say fusing, what the Con- stitution sought to keep strictly apart.' INTRODUCTION In 1981, in Widmar v. Vincent,2 the Supreme Court held that a pol- icy of equal access on a state university campus providing an open forum for meetings of both religious and non-religious student groups did not violate the establishment clause of the Constitution.3 Three years later, Congress codified the Court's decision and ex- tended the right of equal access to the public secondary school fo- rum in the Equal Access Act (Act).4 On June 4, 1990, the Court, in Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens,5 ruled on the constitutionality of the Act both on its face and as applied to a public secondary school.6 The Court decided that once a public sec- ondary school creates a limited open forum, the school may not deny access to or discriminate against any noncurriculum related 1. Illinois ex rel McCollum v. Board of Educ., 333 U.S. 203, 231 (1948) (opinion of Frankfurter, J.). 2. 454 U.S. 263 (1981). 3. Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981). See infra notes 60-72 and accompanying text (discussing Widmar). 4. Pub. L. No. 98-377, 98 Stat. 1302 (codified as amended at 20 U.S.C. §§ 4071-4074 (1988)). See infra note 74 and accompanying text (suggesting that Equal Access Act applied Widmar to public high schools). 5. 110 S. Ct. 2356 (1990). 6. Board of Educ. v. Mergens, 110 S. Ct. 2356, 2370 (1990).

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