Can school officials ban religious music at official school events? In a ruling earlier this year, the 3rd Circuit upheld a New Jersey district's policy prohibiting religious music at concerts and ceremonies sponsored by the school. Now, the Thomas More Law Center has filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging that decision. From their press release, which paints this dispute less as one of constitutional principle and more as a highly politicized culture war:
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented, “This anti-religious policy is yet another example of the militant hostility that many public schools have towards Christians and Christmas. These school districts have embarked on a program to eradicate any reference to Christianity because that religion is a major stumbling block to their political indoctrination of our children.
In a key explanation of the appeals court ruling, Judge Dolores Sloviter remarked in her opinion that finding for the plaintiff against the school district would mean officials are always subject to either an Establishment Clause or a Free Exercise challenge, that "secular" would mean "anti-religious", as clearly Mr. Thompson believes. But how can a school official protect the rights of students when any effort to avoid violating one clause of the Constitution is automatically deemed a violation of another?
You can read the Thomas More petition here.
