Your Guide To Navigating Religious Liberty in Public Schools

The ACLJ has long been involved in religious liberty litigation, including specifically the constitutional rules governing the place of religion in public schools. From representing parties in the Supreme Court cases of Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches USD (equal access for religious groups) and Santa Fe ISD v. Doe (high school invocations) to filing at least a half dozen friend-of-the-court briefs in other school/religion cases in the Supreme Court, to filing briefs in a much larger number of lower court cases, we have steadfastly advocated for protection for religious freedom.

Unfortunately, the constitutional law governing the place of religion in public schools remains complicated, to say the least. Again and again, the U.S. Supreme Court has addressed thorny questions about whether public (i.e., government-run) schools are being too lax or too stingy when it comes to the allowance of prayer, religious discussions, instruction on religious topics, and so forth. Public schools recognize that if they err in one direction, the ACLU or a similar group may sue; if they err in the other direction, the ACLJ or a similar group may sue. What are they to do?

A recent contribution to the area is the updated version of the Freedom Forum’s Religion and Public Schools: A First Amendment Guide. This resource seeks to offer consensus guidance on what the law currently is – not what it should be, which would generate considerable division. As explained in the newest version:

This guide addresses frequently asked questions about issues concerning religion in K-12 public schools. The answers are intended to reflect current law as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court and represent broad agreement among many religious, civil liberties and educational groups about the state of the law concerning religion in public schools.

The guide is not intended to render legal advice on specific legal questions; it is designed to give general information about the place of religion in public schools.

In preparing this guide, the Freedom Forum solicited the input of a variety of players on the topic, such as the Christian Legal Society, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the ACLU – and the ACLJ. We were happy to offer our thoughts on the draft guidelines, and the Freedom Forum was happy to receive them.

So often today opposing groups can be at loggerheads, and third parties can be left bewildered as to where the surest path lies. With this guide, the Freedom Forum has shown that a model of collaboration can work, at least when it comes to describing what the law currently is. Advocacy, of course, is a different matter. For that, the ACLJ stands ready to help.

This revised Freedom Forum guide does not answer all the questions. Indeed, the Supreme Court, in this very term, is tackling the question of how much religious freedom charter schools have. The ACLJ plans to weigh in on that case, and it’s safe to bet there will be more court battles down the road. The Freedom Forum guide provides a handy Q&A resource for those looking for honest answers to fraught questions. But when it’s time to go to court to vindicate religious freedom, reach out to us at ACLJ.org/HELP.