On Thursday afternoon, the two sides met in a courtroom on the second floor of the Hardin County Courthouse. It had all the trappings of a high-profile courtroom drama: Lawyers from both sides haggled over the Texas Constitution and the cheerleaders’ own constitution, a police officer with an assault rifle and binoculars was stationed on the roof, reporters filled the jury box, and one witness — Kieara Moffett, an 11th grade cheerleader — teared up on the stand during cross-examination.

The superintendent’s decision has outraged many students and their parents, and has brought national attention upon a small town about two hours outside Houston. The cheerleaders’ supporters have put up lawn signs and started a Facebook page called Support Kountze Kids Faith that, with nearly 50,000 members, far exceeds the town’s population of 2,100.

Image Cheerleaders and their parents sued the school district. Credit... The New York Times

The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, offered to defend the cheerleaders’ First Amendment rights and wrote a letter to the superintendent saying that the decision to ban the religious messages was based on erroneous legal advice. Representatives of the newly formed Concerned East Texans for Separation of Church and State have taken action as well, delivering a gift basket to the district’s central office that included coffee, chocolates and a thank-you card.

Each side’s lawyers cast their clients as courageous: The teenage cheerleaders, for standing up to the school district to protect their religious views, and Mr. Weldon, himself a Christian and a former football coach, for taking an unpopular position in a largely conservative Christian town in order to, as he sees it, uphold the law.