DiLoreto v. Sussman

The Becket Fund filed an amicus brief supporting Edward DiLoreto, a California resident who rented billboard space at a local public high school playing field. His message was rejected by the school district because of its religious content--instead of a commercial advertisement for his business, he chose to put the Ten Commandments on the sign.

DiLoreto filed suit in state and federal court challenging the school districts censorship of his sign. We filed an amicus brief supporting his position in the Ninth Circuit federal Court of Appeals, arguing that excluding a class of speakers from a forum because of the religious nature of the message constitutes impermissible viewpoint-based discrimination.

Unfortunately, the state court upheld a decision against the Plaintiff, stating that the school district was justified in discriminating against DiLoreto, since such private speech would violate the establishment clause. See the opinion below. The court reasoned that "Even were the rejection of his sign considered to be an imposition on his free exercise rights, the state has a compelling interest in acting in accordance with establishment clause strictures."

UPDATE: On November 8, 1999, the Ninth Circuit unfortunately ruled against Mr. DiLoreto holding that such content-based discrimination against religious speech did not violate the Constitution.

DiLoreto v. Sussman, No 98-56762 (9th Cir.).

DiLoreto v. Board of Education, No. B127050 [This Link takes you to a LexisNexis search of the California Courts website.  LexisNexis requires a subscription.  When prompted, search for the case No. B127050]