Association of Christian Schools International Ex Rel. Tally v. Stearns

MEMORANDUM

The plaintiffs are the Association of Christian Schools International (“ACSI”), Calvary Chapel Christian School (“Calvary”), and five Calvary students (collectively, “the plaintiffs”). They allege that the University of California (“UC”) admission policy, which involves UC’s review and approval of high school courses in order to qualify applicants for UC admission, is unconstitutional under the Free Speech, Free Exercise, Establishment, and Equal Protection Clauses. The defendants, Roman Stearns, Susan Wilbur, Robert Dynes, Mark Rashid, and Judy Sakaki (collectively, “the defendants”), are the UC employees responsible for developing and implementing the course approval policy. The district court determined that UC’s policy was constitutional on its face and as-applied and granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all claims. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and we affirm.

I. The Level of Judicial Scrutiny

The Supreme Court has rejected heightened scrutiny where, as here, the government provides a public service that, by its nature, requires evaluations of and distinctions based on the content of speech. See United States v. American Library…