Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) NorCal East Bay against the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and its superintendent for unlawfully denying elementary school Good News Clubs access to school facilities on an equal basis with other similar non-religious organizations. The discriminatory denial violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, California state law, and school board policy. Liberty Counsel seeks a permanent injunction against OUSD’s unconstitutional actions so the Good News Clubs can resume holding after-school activities on four different campuses.
CEF NorCal East Bay is a non-profit organization and subsidiary of Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc., an international non-profit children’s ministry. CEF Good News Clubs positively impact the lives of children and their families. Good News Clubs typically meet once per week, immediately after school, and are led by trained and vetted local community volunteers. The clubs provide religious and other teaching and activities to encourage learning, spiritual growth, and service to others, as well as social, emotional, character, and leadership development. Good News Clubs do not charge any fee and welcome children with written permission from parents. There are currently 3,041 Good News Clubs in public elementary schools across the United States.
The school district previously allowed CEF NorCal East Bay to host Good News Clubs on its campuses prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to COVID, the school district cancelled all clubs in Spring 2020. However, when CEF requested to resume the Good News Clubs throughout the Spring and Fall of 2023, elementary school officials responded with a variety of denials. In one of the denials, a principal overtly displayed religious viewpoint discrimination stating in an email, “As a public school, we are not in support of Evangelism on our campus.” The district also denied CEF NorCal East Bay because there was “no space” available even when spaces were listed as available online, and also failed to grant the organization’s “community partnership” application in a consistent manner with other similarly situated groups.
In March and December 2023, Liberty Counsel sent a series of demand letters to OUSD, including to Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell and the school board, informing them the district had violated state and federal law by denying these requests, but they completely ignored the letters and never responded. To date, while other organizations such as Girls on the Run and Berkeley Chess School are allowed to use school facilities for after school programs, CEF Good News Clubs remain excluded by blatant religious viewpoint discrimination.
In June 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court in Good News Club v. Milford Central School ruled that public schools violate the First Amendment by not providing equal access and equal treatment to Christian clubs when the school has opened the forum to secular clubs.
Liberty Counsel has represented approximately 200 CEF cases nationally and has never lost a case involving Good News Clubs.
In June 2024, CEF Hawaii prevailed in Liberty Counsel’s lawsuit against Hawaii State Department of Education and six different elementary schools. Due to the legal victory, Good News Clubs in Hawaii are now free to hold after school Bible clubs. A federal district court approved a preliminary injunction that prevents the state from discriminating against CEF, declaring the Christian clubs are permanently entitled to equal access as other after school clubs.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities. Therefore, the Oakland Unified School District must give the Good News Clubs equal access and treatment as the similarly situated non-religious groups on public school campuses. Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a biblically based education that includes moral and character development. Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school and that includes these Oakland schools.”
