WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it won't review a North Texas case on student-led public prayers at school board meetings.

The court's denial leaves in place the ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allows Birdville Independent School District in northeast Tarrant County to open its school board meetings with a student prayer.

Birdville ISD graduate Isaiah Smith and the atheist group American Humanist Association sued the Haltom City-based district in 2015, alleging that the Christian prayer at the school board meetings made Smith feel "violated and uncomfortable." In March, Smith told a three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit that the district's practice violated the Constitution by pressuring other students to participate. The panel disagreed.

Birdville ISD had the backing of Attorney General Ken Paxton. In November 2016, Paxton and 15 other states asked a U.S. district court to uphold the religious freedom of students.

"The student expressions permitted by the Birdville ISD policy are the private speech of the students and thus are permissible under the First Amendment," Paxton said in a news release. "Students should be taught that they are free to express their deeply held religious beliefs to their elected representatives in public forums without any restriction from the government."

On Monday, Birdville ISD Superintendent Darrell Brown applauded the Supreme Court's decision and said the district's trustees believed it was important to ensure the application of the First Amendment was "legal, equitable and defensible."

"The speeches given by students at the board meetings are their own — not something they are told to say," Brown said in a statement. "Occasionally, students will open the meeting with a prayer. We believe the students have the right to express themselves in this manner if they choose. District Judge John H. McBryde, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the district's position on this issue. Birdville ISD has been vindicated by all levels of our judicial system."

Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, called the prayers an "unfair and inappropriate practice."

"The court's decision disregards the serious coercion students face when a prayer is recited in a school-controlled environment with teachers and administrators watching and participating," Speckhardt said.