Early this year, Heather Rooks, a freshman School Board member in Peoria, AZ, received an email from the district’s lawyer telling her that her practice of reading Bible verses at board meetings was illegal, according to a recently filed lawsuit. But at the body’s meeting on March 9, she read 1 Corinthians 16:13 anyway.
“Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong,” she said before thanking Cotton Boll Elementary teachers and students for a tour of their school, then congratulating the Peoria High Panthers boys’ basketball team on winning the 4A Arizona state championship.
Board President David Sandoval interrupted Rooks to remind her that the staff attorney had told board members that reading scripture “from this side of the dais” violated the establishment clause, which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”
Months later, Rooks stopped reading Bible verses but promised that her lawyers would “handle this matter.”
Rooks is now suing the Peoria Unified School District. In a 28-page complaint Rooks accuses district officials of violating her First Amendment free speech rights.
Her lawsuit argues that public officials have routinely quoted scripture while performing their official duties, including presidents stretching from George Washington to Joe Biden, as well as Arizona lawmakers who start legislative sessions with a prayer.