ABSTRACT
In a footnote to the majority opinion, Justice Powell described college students as "young adults" and "less impressionable than younger students." In Widmar v. Vincent, 454 US 263, the US Supreme Court upheld the right of student religious organizations to meet on public university campuses. The case raised issues pertaining both to free speech rights and to free exercise of religion as protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. University officials argued that meetings on campus violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from engaging in activity that would constitute "establishment of religion." Cornerstone claimed that the new policy denied its rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. Byron R. White observed that in cases involving school prayer and posting of the Ten Commandments, religious speech was clearly placed in a distinct category.
