Texas Cheerleaders Take Bible Verse Banner Case To State Supreme Court

Cheerleaders in Texas who have been involved in a legal fight for the past two years over Bible verse banners have decided to take their case to the state Supreme Court.

Cheerleaders and parents from the Kountze School District in Texas announced this week that they would be filing a petition with the state Supreme Court to have their case heard.

The legal fight between the cheerleading squad and the Kountze School District began back in 2012, when the Freedom From Religion Foundation contacted the school district, saying it was a violation of separation of church and state to allow its cheerleading squad to hold banners with Bible verses at school football games.

In response to the FFRF letter, the school district banned the religious-themed banners. Calling the situation a free speech issue, the cheerleading squad then sued the school district, and in 2013 a judge ruled that the cheerleaders should be allowed to carry the banners at school football games. However, the judge did not rule on the constitutionality of the banners and the cheerleaders' right to free speech, therefore prompting the cheer squad and their parents to take the case to the state Supreme Court to receive clarification on their constitutional rights.

Team cheerleader Ashton Lawrence recently said that the issue is not a religious one, but rather a free speech one, and the court should rule in favor of all students' right to free speech.

"If it was a group that was wanting to post not scriptures, but maybe phrases from a different religion they should also be allowed to have their speech," Lawrence said.

The FFRF has denounced the cheerleaders' efforts, saying that the Bible-themed banners were obviously a violation of the U.S. constitution. "The high school in Kountze is not a Christian high school, Kountze is not a Christian city, Texas is not a Christian state and the United States is not a Christian nation," FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said in a statement back in 2013.

"Proselytizing messages by cheerleaders representing the school, wearing the school uniform, at the official start of a public school football game, inevitably carry the appearance of school endorsement and favoritism, turning Christians into insiders and non-Christians and nonbelievers into outsiders."

"It's not only a violation of the law, it's a violation of good manners," Gaylor added.