Cite as: 533 U. S. 98 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
Applying Lamb's Chapel,3 we find it quite clear that Mil-ford engaged in viewpoint discrimination when it excluded the Club from the afterschool forum. In Lamb's Chapel, the local New York school district similarly had adopted § 414's "social, civic or recreational use" category as a permitted use in its limited public forum. The district also prohibited use "by any group for religious purposes." 508 U. S., at 387. Citing this prohibition, the school district excluded a church that wanted to present films teaching family values from a Christian perspective. We held that, because the films "no doubt dealt with a subject otherwise permissible" under the rule, the teaching of family values, the district's exclusion of the church was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. Id., at 394.
Like the church in Lamb's Chapel, the Club seeks to address a subject otherwise permitted under the rule, the teaching of morals and character, from a religious standpoint. Certainly, one could have characterized the film presentations in Lamb's Chapel as a religious use, as the Court of Appeals did, Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School Dist., 959 F. 2d 381, 388-389 (CA2 1992). And one easily could conclude that the films' purpose to instruct that " 'society's slide toward humanism . . . can only be counterbalanced by a loving home where Christian values are instilled from an early age,' " id., at 384, was "quintessentially religious," 202 F. 3d, at 510. The only apparent dif-3 We find it remarkable that the Court of Appeals majority did not cite Lamb's Chapel, despite its obvious relevance to the case. We do not necessarily expect a court of appeals to catalog every opinion that reverses one of its precedents. Nonetheless, this oversight is particularly incredible because the majority's attention was directed to it at every turn. See, e. g., 202 F. 3d 502, 513 (CA2 2000) (Jacobs, J., dissenting) ("I cannot square the majority's analysis in this case with Lamb's Chapel"); 21 F. Supp. 2d, at 150; App. O9-O11 (District Court stating "that Lamb's Chapel and Rosenberger pinpoint the critical issue in this case"); Brief for Appellee in No. 98-9494 (CA2), at 36-39; Brief for Appellants in No. 98-9494 (CA2), pp. 15, 36.
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