Widmar v. Vincent

Background

The dispute involved the University of Missouri at Kansas City, which opens many facilities for registered student groups. An evangelical student group called Cornerstone previously met on campus, but a university regulation adopted in 1972 then prohibited use of university buildings for "religious worship or religious teaching," and the group was denied access, so students sued claiming their speech and association rights were violated.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether a public university that creates a forum for student groups may later exclude a group because its meetings are religious. The majority held that once the university opened a general forum, excluding a group for the religious content of its meetings is a content-based restriction that must meet strict review. The university argued the Establishment Clause (no government endorsement of religion) and Missouri constitutional rules required exclusion, but the Court concluded that equal access to a broad forum would not primarily advance religion and that the university had not shown a compelling reason to single out religious worship for exclusion.

Real world impact

The ruling requires public universities that make facilities generally available to student groups to allow religious worship and discussion on equal terms with other groups, while still permitting reasonable time, place, and manner rules and enforcement of campus regulations. The decision is limited to forums the university itself has opened and does not prevent universities from making academic or resource-allocation choices that are viewpoint-neutral.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Stevens concurred in the judgment but warned that treating student activity programs as public forums could harm academic freedom; Justice White dissented, arguing the state may choose not to provide facilities for worship and that the burden on religious exercise was minimal.