By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
SAN DIEGO, September 11, 2008 (LIfeSiteNews.com) – A California federal judge ruled Friday that a public school teacher has the constitutional right to display classroom banners that mention God.
For over two decades Bradley Johnson, a high school math teacher at Westview High School in the Poway Unified School District in San Diego, CA, has been displaying large red, white and blue banners in his classroom that mention God. The banners contain patriotic phrases such as: “In God We Trust,” “One Nation Under God,” and “God Bless America.”
Last year school officials ordered Mr. Johnson to remove the banners because they promoted a “Judeo-Christian” viewpoint.
The Poway School District allows classroom displays by other teachers that included posters of Buddhist and Islamic messages, Tibetan prayer flags, and posters of rock bands such as Nirvana and The Clash, among others.
As a result, the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit against the school district on behalf of Johnson, arguing that the school district’s actions amounted to government hostility toward a specific religion. The lawsuit also alleged that the school district violated Johnson’s free speech rights by imposing a viewpoint-based restriction upon him, according to a Tuesday press release from the Thomas More Law Center.
The school district responded to the lawsuit by filing a motion to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim.
Last Friday, Federal District Judge Robert T. Benitez rejected the school district’s motion and ruled that Johnson has a Free Speech right to display the banners.
Judge Benitez stated, “Whether described as speech from a religious perspective or speech about American history and culture, through display of his classroom banners, Johnson was simply exercising his free speech rights on subjects that were otherwise permitted in the limited public forum created by Defendants and in a manner that did not cause substantial disorder in the classroom. Thus, Johnson has made out a clear claim for relief for an ongoing violation of his First Amendment free speech rights.”
In the ruling, Judge Benitez pointed out that the school district officials had singled out the teacher to “squelch” his use of the word God in the patriotic expressions, and “unjustifiably abridged Johnson’s constitutional free speech rights.”
A footnote in this section states: “The Court does not understand Johnson’s banners as communicating a religious Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Rather, the banners communicate fundamental political messages and celebrate important American shared historical experiences.”
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel for the Law Center, commented, “Many public schools exhibit a knee-jerk hostility towards Christianity and seek to cleanse our Nation’s classrooms of our religious heritage while promoting atheism or other religions under the guise of cultural diversity.”
Robert Muise, the Thomas More Law Center lawyer handling the case, added, “Judge Benitez’s strongly worded opinion sends a clear message to school districts across the country that hostility toward our Nation’s religious heritage is contrary to our constitution.”
The lawsuit, which Judge Benitez has allowed to proceed by this ruling, will seek to have the speech restriction overturned so that Mr. Johnson can continue to display his banners, as he had been for 25 years.
The full text of this ruling is available here: https://www.thomasmore.org/downloads/sb_thomasmore/PowayRuling.pdf