Judge OKs use of Scriptures on cheerleaders' banners

USATODAY

A district judge has ruled that an East Texas school district's ban on cheerleaders quoting Scriptures on banners at high school football games appears to violate their free speech rights.

District Judge Steve Thomas set a June trial date Thursday on the issue, Beaumont's KDFM-TV reports.

The Kountze Independent School District in September had ordered the cheerleaders to refrain from quoting the Bible verses after a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which said it was acting on behalf of an atheist who felt the school was promoting Christianity.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have backed the cheerleaders.

Abbott, who filed papers with the court on behalf of the cheerleaders, called the banners "student-led expression" that is constitutional.

"We will not allow atheist groups from outside the state of Texas to come into the state to use menacing and misleading and intimidating tactics to try to bully schools to bow down to the altar of secular beliefs," Abbott said on the eve of the hearing, KDFM reports.

The Scriptures are painted on paper banners that are hoisted in front of the football team when it bursts onto the field at Friday night games.

One recent banner borrowed from Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me," The Victoria Times Colonist reports.