District News Roundup

A Missouri school district's policy of closing its schools from 3 P.M. to 6 P.M. to all community groups except scout troops is an unconstitutional form of viewpoint discrimination, a federal appeals court has ruled.

A nondenominational Christian student group had challenged the Ladue, Mo., district's policy after being denied permission to meet in a junior high school.

A federal district judge dismissed the group's suit. But a panel of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Eighth Circuit voted 2 to 1 to reverse. The majority held that the Christian group, like the scout troops allowed to use the school between 3 and 6 P.M., was interested in the moral development of youths. Thus, the court held, the district violated the group's free speech right by discriminating...