A few days ago I mentioned that I was reading Chuck Thompson’s book advocating expulsion of the Southern States. I continue to support his basic thesis, but he was wrong about one thing. He wants to keep Texas, mainly on economic grounds. I say, let those people go.
Cheerleaders in the Southeast Texas town of Kountze may continue displaying banners with Bible verses during football games until a lawsuit over the issue is resolved, a judge ruled Thursday.
State District Judge Steve Thomas of Hardin County granted a temporary injunction in a lawsuit that put the town of 2,100 residents in the center of a national debate about religious freedom and the First Amendment.
Thomas ruled that a ban imposed by the Kountze Independent School District appears to have violated the cheerleaders’ rights to religious expression. Because the trial has been set for June 24, the outcome will be a moot point for this football season.
(via Houston Chronicle)
Here’s what’s going on here. The legal issue is not even close. The free speech claim is laughable on a number of fronts, particularly in light of numerous decisions allowing school authorities to restrict student speech in activities that actually involve personal speech, not speech easily attributable to the school itself, such as school newspapers, not to mention personal blogs. The schedule for the “trial” is also laughable. There are no disputed facts here, so there’s no need for such a drawn out schedule, except to protect the football schedule. Count on the judge to need a long time to mull over the issues, maybe all the way through next football season, at which time he’ll discover some novel constitutional principles that will allow this blatant constitutional violation. One has to wonder if the judge would have ruled differently if the banners had read “There is no God but Allah”.
So Texas is free to leave too. We don’t need their state religion of Christianity infused football.
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