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Cheerleaders Who Were Banned from Displaying Bible Verses Get Last Laugh 6 Years Later

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A group of cheerleaders who were banned from displaying Bible verses in run-through banners at high school football games have finally won a case against their school district after a court refused to hear an appeal to the case, Fox News reported.

On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court announced it was refusing to hear an appeal by the Kountze Independent School District regarding a judgment made against them because of their censorship of the banners, which said things like “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The suit began back in 2012 after the district refused to allow the signs. In January, the state’s Ninth Court of Appeals ruled that the signs were “pure private speech.”

“We find the cheerleaders’ speech on the pregame banners cannot be characterized as government speech,” the court said in its opinion.

The defense for the cheerleaders was relieved this was finally resolved after six years.

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“Our clients are relieved that the Texas Supreme Court has brought an end to the school district’s scorched earth litigation tactics,” First Liberty Institute’s Hiram Sasser told radio host and Fox News contributor Todd Starnes.

“As the football season kicks off across Texas, it’s good to be reminded that these cheerleaders have a right to religious speech on their run-through banners — banners on which the cheerleaders painted messages they chose, with paint they paid for, on paper they purchased,” he added.

First Liberty Institute is one of the nation’s most prominent religious liberty law firms, and they definitely came through this time.

You also may not be surprised where the original complaint came from.

Do you think the Texas Supreme Court made the right decision?

“Their inspirational signs were banned after the superintendent received a complaint letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF),” a statement on First Liberty’s website read, which prompted several of the cheerleaders to sue.

“After winning at the trial court and the intermediary appellate court declaring the case moot, the Kountze Cheerleaders sought review of the case by the Texas Supreme Court to declare that their speech is private religious expression protected under Texas law, and not government speech, subject to the school district’s censorship.

“In January 2016, in an 8-0 decision, the Texas Supreme Court decided in favor of the Kountze Cheerleaders.”

In other words, unanimous. The FFRF can be defeated, and relatively easily at that. It just takes time.

“This is a total victory that protects the religious liberty of students everywhere,” lead appellate counsel Allyson Ho said after the verdict. “This decision by the Supreme Court of Texas should be the final word on this issue for students and schools across Texas.”

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So hopefully, this will send a message to the FFRF and other such interlopers that this kind of thing won’t fly.

Sasser put it more bluntly: “Stop harassing cheerleaders and accept that they are free to have religious speech on their run-through banners.”

We agree wholeheartedly.

And stop spending taxpayer dollars so that you can reserve the right to stop religious speech.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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