A Christian school in Florida is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the school's desire to broadcast a pregame prayer over stadium loudspeakers.
Cambridge Christian School in Tampa, Fla., filed the motion, asking the court whether a previous decision from three years ago to allow a high school coach to pray on the 50 yard line would extend to the loudspeaker broadcasts.
A Christian school in Florida is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the school's desire to broadcast a pregame prayer over stadium loudspeakers.
Cambridge Christian School in Tampa, Fla., filed the motion, asking the court whether a previous decision from three years ago to allow a high school coach to pray on the 50 yard line would extend to the loudspeaker broadcasts.
According to the Washington Times, the justices face a case from 2000 that held student-led prayer over a loudspeaker before a game violated the Establishment Clause, which says the government can’t endorse any one religion.
Cambridge Christian argues that its First Amendment right to free speech and free exercise was violated when school representatives were prevented from saying prayers over the loudspeaker ahead of the school's title game. The school was playing a fellow Christian school, and both sought to engage in the pregame prayer.
Prayer had previously been allowed over the loudspeaker, but in 2015 the Florida High School Athletic Association banned the practice, saying it would be deemed the endorsement of a religion.
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Cambridge Christian sued in 2016 for the right to broadcast prayers over the loudspeaker, but the lower courts ruled against the school. That led the Cambirdge to take their case to the highest court in the land.
“If the decision stands, it will be virtually impossible to overcome government-speech defenses, and the government will again be empowered ‘to single out private religious speech for special disfavor,’” the school’s petition read, which was filed Friday.
