A federal appeals court ruled Sept. 3 that the rights of a private Christian school in Florida were not violated when the Florida High School Athletic Association turned down its demand to broadcast a pregame prayer over a public-address (PA) system.
The case, Cambridge Christian School v. Florida High School Athletic Association, arose in 2015 after two private religious high schools sought to use the public-address system at a state football championship game to lead players and fans in a communal pregame prayer.
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) — a state actor responsible for overseeing the championship game — declined the schools’ request. The FHSAA explained that it does not grant any school access to the PA system during pregame ceremonies at championship games. The Association chose not to make an exception in this case and grant special access for a religious message.
Cambridge Christian School sued, claiming the FHSAA had violated its right to free speech and freedom of religion. A federal court ruled against the school, and it subsequently appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Americans United filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case in December 2017 supporting the FHSAA. In November 2019, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for additional fact-finding. On March 31, 2022, the district court, having reexamined the facts, again rejected the school’s arguments and ruled that the school did not have a constitutional right to access the public-address system to lead communal prayer.
At this point, Cambridge Christian again appealed to the 11th Circuit. In October of 2022, Americans United filed another friend-of-the-court brief in support of the FHSAA. The brief argued that the Association’s actions did not violate the school’s right to freely exercise religion because the Association did not discriminate against religious messages, and the right to religious exercise does not give religious institutions a privilege to extract special benefits from the government that are not available to others.
The brief also explained that if the FHSAA had granted the school special access to the PA system for prayer, the Association would have violated the separation of church and state. The government, the brief asserted, must not coerce members of the public — especially vulnerable youths — to participate in prayer. Nor may it favor one religion over non-religion.
AU’s brief was joined by a number of religious and civil rights organizations.