FIRST AMENDMENT FIGHT
Senior Scholar Charles Haynes with the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., said this is an old First Amendment fight.
“The whole thing goes back to the dividing line the Supreme Court has drawn for many years now between school-sponsored religious speech — which is prohibited by the Establishment Clause — and student-sponsored religious speech, which may be protected by the free speech and free exercise clauses,” Mr. Haynes said.
The distinction is in the relationship between a “group” and a “school,” he said.
The signs violate the law because the cheerleaders, when they’re in uniform at a game, represent the school, he said.
“Even though ‘students’ are delivering the speech in this case — the cheerleaders are obviously students — they are doing it in their capacity as a school-sponsored group,” he said.
“I don’t know how a judge would rule, but I would say, from past cases, that the courts would see this as carrying school sponsorship, just like if the school football team came on the field with verses on their shirts,” he said.
