A federal district court has ordered an upstate New York public high school to return nine bricks inscribed with evangelical Christian messages to a high school walkway from which they had been removed. In Mexico, a village 30 miles north of Syracuse, as a fund raiser a high school class sold bricks that could be inscribed with personal messages. The school received complaints about some of the bricks they sold--ones with messages like "Jesus Saves" and "Jesus Christ The Only Way!". Concern over separation of church and state led school district officials to remove these particular bricks, even though they did not remove others referring to God or commemorating particular churches. The Associated Press yesterday reported that the court found the walkway to be "a limited public forum" open to public expression. The school could not exclude religious viewpoints while permitting others in such a forum. The court also held that the brick sale was clearly a secular project and that the nine bricks did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
UPDATE: Here is the full opinion in Kiesinger v. Mexico Academy and Central School, (ND NY, March 31, 2006). [Thanks to How Appealing via Blog From the Capital.]
