Widmar v. Vincent - American Education

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1981 affirming the constitutional right of student organizations at public colleges and universities to hold religious services on campus property. The University of Missouri’s Kansas City campus had barred such student groups from university buildings, saying such activity violated the constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state. The university, meanwhile, permitted indiscriminate use of its buildings by nonreligious student groups. The Court held that in barring religious groups, the university had violated the First Amendment rights of students by depriving them of their right to free association and by excluding religious speech from the otherwise free speech permitted in its buildings. The Court held that the doctrine of separation of church and state would have had application only if the university itself had been responsible for the religious speech addressed to the students.