226 MARSHALL, J., concurring in judgment defined by the school. The Establishment Clause does not forbid the operation of the Act in such circumstances, but it does require schools to change their relationship to their fora so as to disassociate themselves effectively from religious clubs' speech. Thus, although I agree with the plurality that the Act as applied to Westside could withstand Establishment Clause scrutiny, ante, at 247-253 (O'CONNOR, J., joined by REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE and BLACKMUN, JJ.), I write separately to emphasize the steps Westside must take to avoid appearing to endorse the Christian club's goals. The plurality's Establishment Clause analysis pays inadequate attention to the differences between this case and Widmar and dismisses too lightly the distinctive pressures created by Westside's highly structured environment. I This case involves the intersection of two First Amendment guarantees-the Free Speech Clause and the Establishment Clause. We have long regarded free and open debate over matters of controversy as necessary to the functioning of our constitutional system. See, e. g., Police Dept. of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U. S. 92, 95–96 ((1972) (“To permit the continued building of our politics and culture, and to assure self-fulfillment for each individual, our people are guaranteed the right to express any thought, free from government censorship"). That the Constitution requires toleration of speech over its suppression is no less true in our Nation's schools. See Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U. S. 503, 512 (1969); Keyishian v. Board of Regents of Univ. of N. Y., 385 U. S. 589, 603 (1967); Hazelwood School Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U. S. 260, 280-281 (1988) (BRENNAN, J., dissenting). But the Constitution also demands that the State not take action that has the primary effect of advancing religion. See, e. g., Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U. S. 602, 612 (1971). MARSHALL, J., concurring in judgment 496 U. S. The introduction of religious speech into the public schools reveals the tension between these two constitutional commitments, because the failure of a school to stand apart from religious speech can convey a message that the school endorses rather than merely tolerates that speech. Recognizing the potential dangers of school-endorsed religious practice, we have shown particular "vigilan[ce] in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause in elementary and secondary schools." Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U. S. 578, 583-584 (1987). See also Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U. S. 38, 40 (1985) (invalidating statute authorizing a moment of silence in public schools for meditation or voluntary prayer); Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Ed. of School Dist. No. 71, Champaign County, 333 U. S. 203 (1948) (invalidating statute providing for voluntary religious education in the public schools). This vigilance must extend to our monitoring of the actual effects of an "equal access" policy. If public schools are perceived as conferring the imprimatur of the State on religious doctrine or practice as a result of such a policy, the nominally "neutral" character of the policy will not save it from running afoul of the Establishment Clause.* B We addressed at length the potential conflict between toleration and endorsement of religious speech in Widmar. There, a religious study group sought the same access to university facilities that the university afforded to over 100 *As a majority of this Court today holds, see ante, at 249-250 (O'CONNOR, J., joined by REHNQUIST, C. J., and WHITE and BLACKMUN, JJ.); infra, at 270, the Establishment Clause proscribes public schools from "conveying a message 'that religion or a particular religious belief is favored or preferred,'" County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union, Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 U. S. 573, 627 (1989) (quoting Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U. S. 38, 70 (1985) (O'CONNOR, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment)), even if such schools do not actually “impos[e] pressure upon a student to participate in a religious activity," ante, at 261 (KENNEDY, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). 226 MARSHALL, J., concurring in judgment officially recognized student groups, including many political organizations. In those circumstances, we concluded that granting religious organizations similar access to the public forum would have neither the purpose nor the primary effect of advancing religion. 454 U. S., at 270-275. The plurality suggests that our conclusion in Widmar controls this case. Ante, at 248-253. But the plurality fails to recognize that the wide-open and independent character of the student forum in Widmar differs substantially from the forum at Westside. Westside currently does not recognize any student club that advocates a controversial viewpoint. Indeed, the clubs at Westside that trigger the Act involve scuba diving, chess, and counseling for special education students. Ante, at 245– 246. As a matter of school policy, Westside encourages student participation in clubs based on a broad conception of its educational mission. See App. 488; ante, at 231. That mission comports with the Court's acknowledgment "that public schools are vitally important in the preparation of individuals for participation as citizens,' and as vehicles for 'inculcating fundamental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system."" Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School Dist. No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U. S. 853, 864 (1982) (plurality) (quoting Ambach v. Norwick, 441 U. S. 68, 76-77 (1979)). Given the nature and function of student clubs at Westside, the school makes no effort to disassociate itself from the activities and goals of its student clubs. The entry of religious clubs into such a realm poses a real danger that those clubs will be viewed as part of the school's effort to inculcate fundamental values. The school's message with respect to its existing clubs is not one of toleration but one of endorsement. As the majority concedes, the program is part of the "district's commitment to teaching academic, physical, civic, and personal skills and values." Ante, at 232. But although a school may permissibly encourage its students to become well rounded as student-athletes, student-musicians, and student-tutors, the Constitution for MARSHALL, J., concurring in judgment 496 U.S. bids schools to encourage students to become well rounded as student-worshippers. Neutrality towards religion, as required by the Constitution, is not advanced by requiring a school that endorses the goals of some noncontroversial secular organizations to endorse the goals of religious organizations as well. The fact that the Act, when triggered, provides access to political as well as religious speech does not ameliorate the potential threat of endorsement. The breadth of beneficiaries under the Act does suggest that the Act may satisfy the "secular purpose" requirement of the Establishment Clause inquiry we identified in Lemon, supra, at 612-613. But see post, at 284-285, n. 20 (STEVENS, J., dissenting). But the crucial question is how the Act affects each school. If a school already houses numerous ideological organizations, then the addition of a religion club will most likely not violate the Establishment Clause because the risk that students will erroneously attribute the views of the religion club to the school is minimal. To the extent a school tolerates speech by a wide range of ideological clubs, students cannot reasonably understand the school to endorse all of the groups' divergent and contradictory views. But if the religion club is the sole advocacy-oriented group in the forum, or one of a very limited number, and the school continues to promote its studentclub program as instrumental to citizenship, then the school's failure to disassociate itself from the religious activity will reasonably be understood as an endorsement of that activity. That political and other advocacy-oriented groups are permitted to participate in a forum that, through school support and encouragement, is devoted to fostering a student's civic identity does not ameliorate the appearance of school endorsement unless the invitation is accepted and the forum is transformed into a forum like that in Widmar. For this reason, the plurality's reliance on Widmar is misplaced. The University of Missouri took concrete steps to ensure "that the University's name will not be identified in 226 MARSHALL, J., concurring in judgment any way with the aims, policies, programs, products, or opinions of any organization or its members,"" 454 U. S., at 274, n. 14 (quoting University of Missouri student handbook). Westside, in contrast, explicitly promotes its student clubs "as a vital part of the total education program [and] as a means of developing citizenship." App. 488. And while the University of Missouri recognized such clubs as the Young Socialist Alliance and the Young Democrats, Chess v. Widmar, 635 F. 2d 1310, 1312, n. 1, (CA8 1980), Westside has recognized no such political clubs, App. 488. The different approaches to student clubs embodied in these policies reflect a significant difference, for Establishment Clause purposes, between the respective roles that Westside High School and the University of Missouri attempt to play in their students' lives. To the extent that a school emphasizes the autonomy of its students, as does the University of Missouri, there is a corresponding decrease in the likelihood that student speech will be regarded as school speech. Conversely, where a school such as Westside regards its student clubs as a mechanism for defining and transmitting fundamental values, the inclusion of a religious club in the school's program will almost certainly signal school endorsement of the religious practice. Thus, the underlying difference between this case and Widmar is not that college and high school students have varying capacities to perceive the subtle differences between toleration and endorsement, but rather that the University of Missouri and Westside actually choose to define their respective missions in different ways. That high schools tend to emphasize student autonomy less than universities may suggest that high school administrators tend to perceive a difference in the maturity of secondary and university students. But the school's behavior, not the purported immaturity of high school students, is dispositive. If Westside stood apart from its club program and expressed the view, endorsed by Congress through its passage of the Act, that high school stu |
