Colin Ex Rel. Colin v. Orange Unified School District

ORDER

Before the Court is Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Plaintiffs are students who wish to form a “Gay-Straight Mliance Club” at their high school. They claim that Defendants, the Orange Unified School District and its Board of Education and administrators, have violated their rights under the Equal Access Act and their First Amendment rights of expression and association when they voted to deny Plaintiffs’ application to form the club. At issue is whether Plaintiffs are likely to prevail on these claims and whether an injunction should issue prohibiting Defendants, while this action is pending, from continuing to deny Plaintiffs the same access to El Modena facilities that is accorded to other student groups.

I. Statement of the Facts

There are limited factual disputes in this case. The parties have stipulated to the authenticity of all exhibits submitted, except for newspaper articles. Out of an abundance of caution, the Court heard testimony at the preliminary injunction hearing in order to address some of the limited factual disputes.

In late August 1999, Anthony Colin (“Colin”) and his friend Shannon MacMil-lan (“MacMillan”) decided to form a…