Cheerleaders fight for right to Bible banners

Cheerleaders at a Texas school whose inspirational messages, including Bible verses, on football game banners were briefly censored by school officials went to court and won, so why are they still fighting the case at the state Supreme Court?

Because of the difference between permission to state a message, and the right to state a message, explain officials with the legal team working on behalf of the students in the Kountze Independent School District.

"The religious messages the cheerleaders choose to display on their banners is plainly the private speech of the cheerleaders and deserves protection," said Hiram Sasser, director of Litigation for Liberty Institute, which recently submitted additional arguments to the Texas Supreme Court.

"The state Supreme Court needs to enforce the rule of law and reverse the Beaumont Court of Appeals ruling," he said.

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The case dates back a number of years already, but in May 2013, Hardin County District Court Judge Steve Thomas ruled for the cheerleaders, saying the banners were "constitutionally permissible."

He rejected the school district's claim that the banners were government speech.

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But the district appealed and there was a sudden change before the Beaumont judges.

There, Liberty Institute reported, the court concluded that "because the Kountze ISD stated it would allow the banners and that the cheerleaders could display religious messages" the case was moot – ended.

But Liberty Institute pointed out that the school, in its appellate argument, claimed the right to "control the speech and retain the power to censor religious messages in the future."

That means the cheerleaders' speech is possible through the district's permission, not because of their free speech rights, attorneys now are arguing before the state's highest court.

"The cheerleaders' religious messaging on their run-through banners is private speech – not government speech, which is subject to censorship and banning – and it is protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution," Liberty Institute argued.

The students had created the banners, buying their own materials, and had done so for years without getting the attention of the school. That was until just a few years back when the students added faith and inspirational messages.

The Freedom From Religious Foundation complained to the district, which ordered the messages banned, and the court case resulted.

The Institute's attorneys are arguing, "Current and future Kountze Independent School District cheerleaders are still in danger since the school district continues to violate the students' rights by claiming that the cheerleaders' banners are government speech – and subject to censorship and banning."

The legal team is arguing for the high court's intervention because the district "has not actually ceased its unconstitutional conduct," because the district has not made it clear that it will not censor student speech in the future and under the existing decision, the "cheerleaders will soon be barred from ever displaying religious messages on their banners."

"The court of appeals was wrong to declare this case moot. There is a live controversy between the cheerleaders and KISD – namely, whether the messages on the banners are the private speech of the cheerleaders, as the district court held, or the government speech of the school, as no court has ever held," the brief argues.

"This case boils down to one uncontested, dispositive fact: KISD allows its cheerleaders to select the messages included on the run-through banners that they use to cheer on their classmates … That is all that matters in this case: The students select the message, not the school."

The argument continued, "The case is not simply about whether KISD is currently allowing religious messages to appear on the cheerleaders' banners. Rather, the dispute is whether the speech on the banners is the private speech of the cheerleaders, or government speech of KISD.

"The controversy remains very much alive – because KISD continues to treat the cheerleaders' messages as the school's own government speech, when it is actually the private speech of the cheerleaders."

Institute attorneys said, "We have not found a single case where a student, speaking a message of her choice, was deemed a government speaker. This court should decline the invitation to become the first court to rule otherwise."

Supt. John Ferguson told WND he hopes to get closure on the issue from the state Supreme Court over the summer.