In the case of Good News Club et al. v. Milford Central School, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Christian children's club that had been denied access to public school facilities for its after-school activities. The Milford Central School in New York had argued that allowing religious groups to use their premises would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits any law respecting an establishment of religion. However, the court held by a 6-3 majority that denying such access constituted viewpoint discrimination and violated free speech rights under the same amendment. The court stated that schools may not discriminate against speech on grounds of its religious perspective when making their facilities available to community groups.

In the dissenting opinion for Good News Club v. Milford Central School, Justice Stevens argued that the school district did not violate free speech rights by denying a religious group access to its facilities after hours. He emphasized that public schools have a constitutional obligation to remain neutral in matters of religion and must avoid any appearance of endorsing or promoting religious views. Allowing an evangelical Christian club to conduct meetings on school premises could be perceived as endorsement, especially given that children might struggle distinguishing between activities during official school hours and those taking place immediately afterwards but still within the same environment. Furthermore, he noted this case was different from previous ones where general community groups were denied access because here it involved direct proselytizing aimed at converting young students into specific beliefs which is inherently more coercive than other forms of speech.