Case Abstracts
DeBoer v. Village of Oak Park
267 F.3d 558 (7th Cir. 2001)
Village residents who desired to use village hall as part of their participation in National Day of Prayer brought action against village, alleging that village‘s use policy for hall violated Free Speech Clause. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois allowed meeting, but on reconsideration held that village‘s restriction of use to civic purposes precluded any use of hall for prayers of ostensibly civic nature. Residents appealed, and village cross-appealed. The Court of Appeals held that: (1) village engaged in viewpoint discrimination by refusing to allow use of village hall on ground that group which wished to express its viewpoint on civic issue through prayer was not conducting a civic event; (2) requirement of use policy that meeting not “promote or espouse” any particular viewpoint to exclusion of other viewpoints was facially unconstitutional; and (3) requirement of use policy that event “benefit the public as a whole” was facially unconstitutional because it vested village clerk with unbridled discretion.
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