RICHMOND, Va. — A Maryland school system's policy governing distribution of fliers is unconstitutional because it offers no protection against viewpoint discrimination, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the policy gives Montgomery County Public Schools unlimited authority to exclude any group from a program that allows private organizations to send fliers home with public school students.

"Permitting MCPS unbridled discretion to deny access to the oft-used forum — for any reason at all, including antipathy to a particular viewpoint — does not ensure the requisite viewpoint neutrality," Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote in the unanimous opinion in Child Evangelism Fellowship v. Montgomery County Public Schools.

The case was brought by the Child Evangelism Fellowship, a Christian organization that was barred from sending materials home with children. School officials said they feared using public facilities to distribute the fliers could amount to an unconstitutional government advancement of religion.

CEF filed suit in 2001 and lost in federal court. The 4th Circuit reinstated the lawsuit in 2004 and sent the case back to the lower court, prompting the school system to develop a written policy governing the take-home flier program.

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte again ruled in favor of the school system. But the appeals court said in yesterday's ruling that nothing had really changed.

"This policy utterly fails to provide adequate protection for viewpoint neutrality," Motz wrote in the opinion, which was joined by Judges M. Blane Michael and Dennis Shedd.