Atheists Fight to Offer College Scholarships

[rug]

Friday, April 15, 2016Last Update: 6:11 AM PT
By MIKE HEUER

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A school district in California's high desert refused to include scholarship offers from atheist groups in the lists they distribute to students, the groups claim in court.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Antelope Valley Freethinkers sued Antelope Valley Union School Board and its High School District on constitutional grounds Tuesday in Federal Court.

California's high desert, inland from greater Los Angeles, is a conservative area with many military and retired military personnel.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation annually offers $17,950 in college scholarships, and the Antelope Valley Freethinkers offered $1,750 in scholarships to three winners.'

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/04/15/atheists-fight-to-offer-college-scholarships.htm

[struggle4progress]

1. I'll be surprised if they're found to have standing

I can't imagine any material injury to them

I'd guess this is the webpage under discussion: http://www.avhs.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=288290&type=d&pREC_ID=665842

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The religious groups get publicity, which they'd otherwise have to pay for

by printing and distributing leaflets or posters throughout the district, and the atheists have been refused that. That seems like a material injury to them. Also, there's an implied approval of all the religious scholarships (even Scientology, which is a financial scam, not a religion) when the school district publicises them, which the atheist groups are being refused.

[struggle4progress]

3. That particular argument probably has little cogency: an organizations is, of course, free

to offer scholarships for whatever real reasons it may like; but the public and purported reasons for offering a scholarship is unlikely to include free advertising for the organization; and the claim that an organization is offering its scholarship for the benefit of free publicity, and so is somehow harmed by a denial of such publicity, invites the obvious reply that the normal responsibilities of the school district and its board do not extend to the offering of free publicity

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's harmed because the best potential awardees may not benefit

It's offering the scholarships to help good scholars; but if their school district (which does have a responsibility to help the students get a good education, including what the scholarships enable) discriminates, it harms the scholars, and thus the goal of the organization.

[struggle4progress]

5. One usually cannot sue on the basis of an alleged harm to a third party

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. The harm is to the foundation's aim of education

"FFRF is a non-profit, educational organization." http://ffrf.org/

It's trying to help the education of the students, and the school district is blocking it.

[struggle4progress]

7. Can every non-profit educational organization litigate a failure to provide free publicity ---

and, if so, under what theory?

An actual harm caused by an actual act may be litigable, as might an actual foreseeable harm caused by a negligent failure to act to prevent such harm; but a mere failure to act to provide a benefit, absent a duty, cannot be litigable

Could I sue you for failing to give me $100K, when you otherwise have no obligation to do so, on the theory that your callous inaction has cost me $100K?

Consider a hypothetical educational organization, Moose Economics, devoted to the proposition that the Italian Fascists made some mistakes but had a sound economic agenda. Moose Economics does not approve of blackshirt political violence, the invasion of Ethiopia, or Mussolini's alliance with Hitler: they simply promote certain economic ideas they attribute to Mussolini. The organization offers a $500 scholarship for the best essay discussing how to bring Mussolini's economic ideas to 21st century America. Is every school district, that offers its students information on available college scholarships, obliged, on first amendment grounds, to call attention to the Moose Economics essay contest?

Or consider a hypothetical educational organization, Junior Sex, devoted to developing a new generation of students informed about sex and with healthy positive attitudes toward teenage sexuality. Junior Sex educates students about masturbation, venereal diseases, sexual identity, and sexual experimentation. The organization offers a $500 scholarship for the best essay discussing one's sexual experiences as a high school junior. Is every school district, that offers its students information on available college scholarships, obliged, on first amendment grounds, to call attention to the Junior Sex essay contest?

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. When it's being discriminated against, by a public entity that is meant to have the same goal

and which is not meant to favour religion, yes, I would think they could sue. The first amendment is the theory, because government bodies, such as school districts, cannot favour religions over atheist organizations. The 'actual act' was the rejection of the information the foundation provided, while accepting controversial subjects from others.

A school district would have a better chance of being able to reject a pro-Mussolini scholarship, or one about 'junior sex' (the age of consent in the state would, I imagine, have a bearing; if sex is illegal for someone in their junior year, I would think they'd have a good case for rejecting something encouraging people to write about them), because those are not explicitly covered in a constitutional amendment. They might come in under general 'freedom of expression', though.

[struggle4progress]

14. Any claim that a scholarship grantor has the same goal as the various schools posting scholarship

information becomes incoherent if the grantor sues the schools for failure to post information regarding the grantor's scholarship on the theory that the schools thereby interfere with the grantor's free speech rights

The presumable objective of the various schools in posting scholarship information is to introduce students to some available funding sources, not to advance the free speech rights of scholarship grantors

Anyone is free to offer students a scholarship, with whatever motive: someone's offering, however, does not create an obligation by the schools to publicize the opportunity. Otherwise, anyone willing to offer a small sum could expect the schools to add the offer to various school websites, with the plausible result that staff and school board would become mired in constant community controversy over the content of scholarship content on the websites. No one serious has time for the endless gaming that would follow

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. The school district is discriminating on the basis of religion

The text about the scholarship essay for the FFRF group is similar to that for religious groups, but the district rejected it. It's a public body, and so it should not be discriminating on the grounds of religion - because of the First Amendment.

No, your logic is faulty; that one educational group sues another educational group on free speech grounds does not mean that they can't both be educational groups. There's nothing 'incoherent' about that.

[rug]

9. Sounds like a PR stunt

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. You think scholarships are 'stunts'?

OK. Have you called the religious scholarships 'stunts' too? Or the non-religious ones?

[rug]

11. No. Essay contests often are.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. The suit talks about religious and non-religious essay contests for scholarships

that the school district publicises. Are you objecting to them all as 'stunts'?

[rug]

13. No. The religious groups don't need the publicity.

FFRF thrives on it. Usually as a precursor to a lawsuit.

My daughter's applying to college next year and the range of scholarships offered range from the parochial to the bizarre. The common thread is each one is seeking to promote some idiosyncratic value, whether it's Hibernian ancestry or the Odd Fellows. With some exceptions, the scholarships usually don't amount to much and I feel bad for the dozens of students who write these essays churning out paeans to some cherished value of an organization few heard of before trying to scrape up money to pay the exorbitant cost of college.

FFRF is free to join their ranks. But don't kid yourself that it's not about publicity.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Of course they need the publicity. That's why they give the details of the scholarships

to the school districts - so they can publicise them to students. If the groups didn't benefit from the school districts sending out the publicity, they wouldn't bother with that.

This is how life works, rug. If you set up a scholarship, the potential scholars have to know about it. They don't sit down and write letters to random people saying "will you give me a scholarship", the organisations offer the scholarships. They tell people about them. You say yourself "the range of scholarships offered". That's publicity. Setting up a web page to describe them is publicity.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. FFRF lawsuit triumphs over school district censorship

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has prevailed in a court battle over a California school district's censorship.

In a legal settlement signed by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real, the Antelope Valley Union High School District consented to distribute scholarship opportunities offered by FFRF and Antelope Valley Freethinkers. It also agreed to reimburse $10,000 in attorneys' fees.
...
FFRF is satisfied that the Antelope Valley Union High School District will not engage in invidious viewpoint discrimination in the future or censor scholarship programs catering to nonreligious students.

"We're sorry it took a lawsuit to get the school district to agree to equal treatment of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Antelope Valley Freethinkers," says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "But we were confident we would prevail. It's also heartening to get a victorious settlement so quickly."

https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/26856-ffrf-lawsuit-triumphs-over-school-district-censorship

[rug]

18. Announced with a press release.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. And your point is?

[rug]

20. They succeeded in getting publicity.

I hope a student ends up with a scholarship from them now and then.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Again, you start by ascribing 'bad' intentions to atheists, while excusing everyone else

even Scientologists. It's as if you are forced to discriminate against atheists. You're hopeless.

[rug]

22. No, I'm ascribing opportunism to the FFRF specifically.