Good News Clubs Win Permanent Injunction Giving Them Equal Access at Oakland Schools

Liberty Counsel Staff : May 26, 2026
Liberty Counsel

"...The US Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities. The Oakland Unified School District learned that viewpoint discrimination against religious clubs can be a costly mistake. Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a Biblically based education that includes moral and character development. Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school." -Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman

(Oakland, CA) — [Liberty Counsel] [Last week], a federal district court granted Liberty Counsel a permanent injunction on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) and its Good News Clubs giving them equal access to school facilities which had been unlawfully denied by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). (Image: Unsplash-Meredith Spencer)

In December 2024, Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit on behalf of CEF NorCal East Bay after the OUSD denied it equal access to four different campuses on religious grounds, pretextual schemes, and even by silence over a two-year period. Liberty Counsel successfully argued that these discriminatory denials violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments and California state law.

The permanent injunction declares CEF as the "prevailing party" and secures protection for the Good News Clubs from viewpoint discrimination. The injunction requires the OUSD to treat CEF equally with other similarly-situated groups on campus, such as Girls on the Run and Berkeley Chess School. The District Court ordered OUSD school officials to amend its policies so applications for community use of facilities are evaluated "using only neutral and objective criteria" and that timely responses are made within 30 days of the application.

As a result of the victory, US District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. awarded CEF $120,000 in attorney's fees and costs ratifying a settlement agreement between CEF and OUSD.

Prior to the COVID pandemic, OUSD had allowed CEF NorCal East Bay to host Good News Clubs on its campuses. In response to COVID, the school district cancelled all clubs in Spring 2020. However, when CEF requested to resume the Good News Clubs throughout the Spring and Fall of 2023, elementary school officials responded with a variety of denials. In several of the denials, school officials overtly displayed religious viewpoint discrimination stating that CEF was not a "good match," and "we are not in support of Evangelism on our campus." The district also denied CEF NorCal East Bay because there was "no space" available even when spaces were listed as available online, and also failed to grant the organization's "community partnership" application over "its religious programming."

While OUSD argued that allowing CEF to use school facilities would have violated the Establishment Clause, Judge Gilliam in his initial preliminary injunction rejected that argument using US Supreme Court precedent. Since the clubs are held after school hours, not sponsored by the school, and open to any student who obtained parental consent, the Good News Clubs cannot be denied based on their religious viewpoint, and OUSD is "simply wrong as a matter of well-established law," wrote Judge Gilliam.

CEF NorCal East Bay is a non-profit organization and subsidiary of Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc., an international non-profit children's ministry. CEF Good News Clubs positively impact the lives of children and their families. Good News Clubs typically meet once per week, immediately after school, and are led by trained and vetted local community volunteers. The clubs provide religious and other teaching and activities to encourage learning, spiritual growth, and service to others, as well as social, emotional, character, and leadership development. Good News Clubs do not charge any fee and welcome children with written permission from parents.

In June 2001, the US Supreme Court in Good News Club v. Milford Central School ruled that public schools violate the First Amendment by not providing equal access and equal treatment to Christian clubs when the school has opened the forum to secular clubs.

Liberty Counsel has represented hundreds of CEF cases nationally and has never lost a case involving Good News Clubs.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "This is another victory for Child Evangelism Fellowship, parents, and students. The US Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities. The Oakland Unified School District learned that viewpoint discrimination against religious clubs can be a costly mistake. Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a Biblically based education that includes moral and character development. Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here