In
Cambridge Christian School, Inc. v. Florida High School Athletic Association, (MD FL, June 7, 2016), a Florida federal district court, agreeing with a magistrate's recommendation (see
prior posting), dismissed a suit brought by a Christian high school complaining that it was denied permission to use the stadium loudspeaker system to deliver a prayer at the Championship Game in which its football team was playing. The action was taken by the governing organization for athletics in Florida’s public schools-- a body which private schools must join if they wish to play against public schools. The court said in part:
... [T]he entirety of the speech over the Stadium loudspeaker was government speech and ..., even if it were not, the Stadium loudspeaker is a non-public forum. Therefore, the FHSAA was permitted to deny Cambridge Christian’s request to use it to broadcast prayer during a school sporting event organized and governed by a state entity....
Here, ... there was no ban on communal prayer. Instead, the FHSAA simply declined to sponsor Cambridge Christian’s prayer, which is not a violation of the Free Exercise Clause....
The allegations of the Verified Amended Complaint ... allege only that Cambridge Christian was denied its traditional method of advancing the school’s mission during sporting events, and that the mission is a religious one. The mission itself, however, is not a religious belief, nor is broadcasting a prayer over a loudspeaker.... [E]ven if denial of access to the loudspeaker did burden a religious belief of Cambridge Christian, such a burden did not amount to a substantial one, but simply inconvenienced the belief, because Cambridge Christian was not denied alternate means of engaging in communal prayer. Accordingly, Cambridge Christian has failed to state a claim under Florida’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
