Atlanta, GA – In a unanimous decision, a federal court of appeals has struck down an antireligious school board policy that banned students from distributing religious literature within the Lee County School Board, located in Florida. The students in the lawsuit were represented by Liberty Counsel.
While in seventh grade in Cypress Lake Middle School, Michelle Heinkel sought permission to distribute religious and pro-life literature about the Day of Remembrance, which was a day to remember unborn children who lost their lives through abortion. The Day of Remembrance was sponsored by Freedom to Learn. However, Superintendent James Browder denied the request. The school board policy prohibited students from distributing literature that is political, religious or proselytizing. The next year, Browder again denied Heinkel’s request, along with the request of Nate Cordray, a student at Riverdale High School. The federal district court upheld the policy, but the court of appeals found it unconstitutional.
In its unanimous decision, the court of appeals ruled that the policy’s ban on all political and religious literature was an unconstitutional content-based restriction. The court also ruled that the policy gave too much unrestricted discretion to school officials to deny speech. The court struck down the entire policy as a violation of the First Amendment.
Erik Stanley, Chief Counsel of Liberty Counsel, said, “Public school students have a right to free speech, which includes verbal or written speech, before, after or in between classes. A school’s desire to squelch speech because of discomfort with the message is unconstitutional.”
Religious and political speech are twin sisters, without which we have no freedom. Public schools may ban obscenity and libel, but religious and political speech does not stop at the schoolhouse door. Banning religious speech sends the wrong message that religion is taboo or second class, which proposition neither this court nor the Constitution is willing to tolerate. Educators need education about American history and the Constitution.
Mathew Staver is the Founder and Chairman of the Liberty Counsel, as well as the lawyer who argued this case before the district court and at the appellate level.
