The Supreme Court has declined to take up a legal fight involving a Tampa, Fla.-based Christian school that wanted to broadcast a pregame prayer over its stadium loudspeaker before a championship football game.
In rejecting the appeal, the high court will not reconsider a 25-year-old decision that found student-led prayer at football games unconstitutional, per the reporting of Melissa Quinn of CBS News. There were no noted dissents.
Related: Florida Christian School's Fight Over Pregame Prayer Heads to Supreme Court
The legal battle stemmed from the Florida High School Athletic Association denying Cambridge Christian its desire to amplify a pregame prayer prior to the start of a playoff football game, which the schools argued violated its rights to free exercise of religion and free speech.
Cambridge Christian asked the Supreme Court to overturn its 2000 ruling in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, which held that the school district's policy of allowing student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.
Related: Court Curbs Right of Schools to Solicit Pregame Prayers
In declining to take up the school's appeal, that 25-year-old decision will remain in place. Also left intact is a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in favor of the FHSAA, which found that use of the loudspeaker by the Christian schools to engage in communal prayer before a state-organized football game would be government speech, Quinn reported.
The dispute dates back to 2015, when Cambridge Christian School and University Christian were set to square off in the Class 2A state championship, played at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. Ahead of the championship game set for that December, a representative for University Christian asked the state athletics association for permission to say a pregame prayer over the stadium's loudspeaker.
But the association informed the schools that neither would be allowed to use the public-address system to broadcast a prayer before the game. The then-head of Cambridge Christian re-upped the request to Roger Dearing, executive director of the FHSAA at the time, asking he "allow two Christian schools to honor their Lord before the game and pray" over the loudspeaker.
But Dearing denied the schools' request, and said he believed federal law prevented him from granting permission to broadcast a pre-game prayer because the Citrus Bowl is a public facility and the FHSAA is a "state actor," and therefore cannot allow communal prayer. The athletics association instead suggested the two schools come together before the start of the game to pray, which they did, per Quinn's reporting.
After the game, Dearing told the schools that he believed that if the athletic association were to allow prayer over the broadcast system, the state could be seen as endorsing or promoting religion in violation of the Establishment Clause. He cited the Supreme Court's 2000 Santa Fe decision.
As reported by Quinn, Cambridge Christian sued the FHSAA in 2016, alleging that it had violated its First Amendment rights. A federal district court ruled in favor of the athletics association in March 2022. The trial court found the pregame speech broadcast over the PA system at the state championship game is government speech. Moreover, the court ruled that Cambridge Christian's religious rights were not violated when it was refused access to the loudspeaker for pregame prayer.
Related: Christian School Sues FHSAA Over Denied PA Prayer
After the district court's ruling, the Florida Legislature enacted a law requiring the FHSAA to allow schools participating in a high school championship contest the chance to make brief opening remarks, if requested, through the public address system.
When the 11th Circuit reviewed the district court's decision, it agreed that pregame speech over the PA system at a FHSAA football championship game — which takes place at a neutral site — constitutes government speech.
The appeals court also rejected Cambridge Christian's free exercise claim, finding that the FHSAA was regulating its own expression when it prevented pregame speech over the public-address system at the 2015 championship game, Quinn reported.
The school appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the athletic association allowed private speech over its loudspeaker but impermissibly censored private religious speech, only because it was religious.
According to Quinn, the school's lawyers warned in a filing that if the 11th Circuit's decision were to stand, "state actors will be able to claim that virtually all private speech and religious exercise in a government setting lacks First Amendment protection."
