Appeals court rules on Bible distribution in schools

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that found a Missouri school district unconstitutionally permitted distribution of Bibles to elementary schoolchildren in their classrooms.

But the court ruled that the South Iron R-1 School District in Iron County can enact a new policy permitting “any printed material” approved by the superintendent to be distributed outside classroom time.

“The policy itself applies to all persons or groups wishing to distribute literature to students, not just to Bible distribution by the Gideons,” wrote Chief Judge James B. Loken in the unanimous decision by the three-member panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

Members of The Gideons International, an evangelical organization that donates Bibles to various institutions, had given Bibles to the district’s fifth-graders for about three decades, the court said.