822
Opinion of the Court
Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and O'Connor, Scalia, and Thomas, JJ., joined. O'Connor, J., post, p. 846, and Thomas, J., post, p. 852, filed concurring opinions. Souter, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Stevens, Ginsburg, and Breyer, JJ., joined, post, p. 863.
Michael W. McConnell argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs was Michael P. McDonald.
John C. Jeffries, Jr., argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was James J. Mingle.*
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. The University of Virginia, an instrumentality of the Commonwealth for which it is named and thus bound by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, authorizes the payment of outside contractors for the printing costs of a variety of student publications. It withheld any authorization for payments on behalf of petitioners for the sole reason that their student
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the Commonwealth of Virginia by James S. Gilmore III, Attorney General, David E. Anderson, Chief Deputy Attorney General, William Henry Hurd, Deputy Attorney General, and Alison Paige Landry, Assistant Attorney General; for the American Center for Law and Justice by Jay Alan Sekulow, James Matthew Henderson, Sr., and Keith A. Fournier; for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights by Edward M. Gaffney, Jr.; for the Christian Legal Society et al. by Douglas Laycock, Steven T. McFarland, and Samuel B. Casey; and for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute by Robert M. Rader and Donn C. Meindertsma. Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American
Civil Liberties Union et al. by Marjorie Heins, Steven R. Shapiro, and Stephen B. Pershing; for Americans United for Separation of Church and State et al. by Steven K. Green, Samuel Rabinove, Jeffrey P. Sinensky, and Steven M. Freeman; for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs et al. by J. Brent Walker, Oliver S. Thomas, Elliot M. Mincberg, Melissa Rogers, David Saperstein, and Lois C. Waldman; for the Council on Religious Freedom by Lee Boothby, Walter E. Carson, Robert W. Nixon, and Rolland Truman; for the National School Boards Association by Gwendolyn H. Gregory, August W. Steinhilber, and Thomas A. Shannon; for the Pacific Legal Foundation by Anthony T. Caso and Deborah J. La Fetra; and for the Student Press Law Center by S. Mark Goodman.
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