Suit Challenges Jesus Portrait In Public Middle School

The Freedom From Religion Foundation announced that it, along with the ACLU of Ohio, filed suit yesterday on behalf of parents and a student who attends Jackson, Ohio Middle School. The federal court lawsuit seeks removal of a portrait of Jesus displayed on an entrance wall in the school. The complaint (full text) in Doe v. Jackson City School District, (SD OH, filed 2/7/2013), alleges that the display violates the federal Constitution's Establishment Clause, as well as  Art. I, Sec. 7 of the Ohio Constitution. Plaintiffs sought court permission to file the lawsuit using pseudonyms (memo in Support of Motion). In response to the lawsuit, Liberty Institute (which had been engaged by the school board to make a recommendation on the matter) said that plaintiffs should have waited for its report to be completed.