A federal judge has ruled that the Florida High School Athletic Association did not discriminate against two private Christian high schools by barring them from holding a prayer over the loudspeaker before a 2015 state championship football game.
U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell reasoned that FHSAA is a “state actor” and “a non-profit organization that governs high school athletics in Florida.”
She wrote, “The issue before the court is whether the First Amendment required the FHSAA to grant the teams unrestricted access to the P.A. system to deliver the prayer over the loudspeaker during the pregame.”
She ruled it did not.
Attorney Hiram Sasser of First Liberty Institute, told The Christian Post that the “bottom line issue” is whether the schools were forbidden from praying because the action is “religious.” Sasser asserted that the incident was an example of “unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.”
FHSAA previously allowed a pregame prayer over the loudspeaker at the same stadium in 2012. However, the judge argued that the 2012 prayer was an “isolated incident,” and its occurrence did not change her view.
Sasser responded – “You can’t excuse it away to say, well, we didn’t mean to treat those other people better. That’s no justification for the discrimination that took place.”
The school plans to appeal.