Vermont school prohibits Christian club

In July a student of Middlebury Union High School submitted a written request seeking official recognition of "Youth Alive," a student-run Christian club. The school district currently recognizes several other clubs, including the Gay\Straight Organization, the Arabic Club, the Outing Club, and the Student Coalition on Human Rights. However, official recognition of the "Youth Alive" club was denied.

The student then contacted the Alliance Defense Fund, which recently filed a lawsuit against the Middlebury Union High School District No. 3. ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman is representing the student, and he says it all boils down to a misinterpretation of the Establishment Clause.

"I think they just have an incorrect view of the Establishment Clause, which is the so-called 'separation of Church and State,'" Cortman explains. "Their position ... in the denial letter was, 'Well, if we officially recognize your club, we'll be sponsoring religion.' But that's certainly a mistaken view of the law."

The attorney points out that the legal aspects of the lawsuit have already been decided by Congress and by the Supreme Court.

"The Equal Access Act, which governs this area of the law, was passed by Congress over 20 years ago," he says. "[And] the Supreme Court ... heard this same issue in 1990 (Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens). So this is a law that's already established -- and any school district in the state of Vermont is already required to follow it. Why this district has chosen not to, I'm certainly unclear."

According to Cortman, he has had a 100 percent success rate in arguing similar court cases. He says that either the schools realize they are misinterpreting the law before going to court, or they are informed of such misinterpretation by a judge and then ordered to allow Christian clubs on school grounds.