HALTOM CITY, Texas — A circuit court in Texas has upheld a school district’s right to allow student-led prayers at their monthly board meetings, according to The Christian Post.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 20 against a lawsuit filed by an atheist group that wanted to end the prayers at the Birdville Independence School District’s board meetings. The American Humanist Association (AHA) had filed the suit in 2015 on behalf of former student Isaiah Smith.
“Smith claims that the prayers made him feel unwelcome at the public meetings and that the school board endorsed Christianity,” AHA stated. “Students and teachers also regularly attend the meetings.”
Judge Jerry E. Smith authored the circuit court’s opinion, which affirmed a lower court’s decision to continue allowing the prayers, the Post reported.
“Because the practice falls more nearly within the recently reaffirmed legislative-prayer exception to the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause jurisprudence, we affirm the summary judgment in favor of the school district,” Judge Smith wrote. “Although it is possible to imagine a school-board student-expression practice that offends the Establishment Clause, this one, under its specific facts, does not.” (TAB)
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