After ACLU threat, N.C. school district ended practice of allowing outside groups to leave Bibles at elementary schools

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter Tuesday to the superintendent of Cumberland County Schools, advising him that the district did not need to prohibit outside groups from leaving Bibles at its elementary school campuses. The district put the prohibition in place after the American Civil Liberties Union apparently contacted the district and claimed that allowing such materials violates the U.S. Constitution.

“Bibles are not second class to other types of written materials left for students to read voluntarily. There’s nothing unconstitutional about outside groups leaving Bibles at public schools so long as the schools do not prohibit other groups from leaving literature as well,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman, who wrote the letter to Cumberland County Schools Superintendent William Harrison.

The ACLU claims that students may interpret the availability of the Bibles by an outside group as an endorsement of religion by the school, but Cortman explained that U.S. Supreme Court rulings do not support such a claim. The high court ruled that an outside group’s religious activity cannot be prohibited “on the basis of what the youngest members of the audience might misperceive” [Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98, 119 (2001)].

“So long as the District permits outside groups to distribute religious and nonreligious materials on a neutral basis, it does not violate the Establishment Clause to permit the distribution of Bibles as well. Moreover, it violates the First Amendment Free Speech Clause to prohibit the distribution of Bibles within the context of such a free speech forum,” Cortman wrote.

In the letter, Cortman said that ADF would represent the school district free of charge if the district resumes allowing the distribution of Bibles and is then challenged in court by the ACLU or any other organization.

A copy of the letter is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/CumberlandLetter.pdf.