Two Texas elementary school principals have failed in their attempt to have the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismiss a suit filed against them for trying to kill the spirit of Christmas, not to mention Jesus, in innocent young children, who are blessed in His eyes.

Lynn Swanson and Jackie Bomchill, who are obviously hellspawn, refused to let students distribute Jesus pencils or candy canes that had notes attached explaining that candy canes are symbolic of God, or shepherds, or something.

Thanks to the 5th Circuit -- and to brave parents who insisted on foisting their religious views on unsuspecting kids despite being told several times that they really shouldn't be doing that on school grounds -- these two Beelzebub-ites will still face lawsuits.

Thank the Lord.

The 5th Circuit opinion outlines just how evil these Plano principals were.

In Holiday Parties -- NOTE NOT "CHRISTMAS PARTIES" -- children were allowed to pass out cards and little gifts as long as they did not contain religious themes, according to district policy.

Undaunted by mere "guidelines" that every other child and parent had no trouble conforming to, one student passed out pencils with "Jesus is the reason for the season" on them. (This was back in 2001, just to give some idea of how long this fight's been going on.)

Later, another student gave out candy canes with a note explaining the the candies are based on a shepherd's crook, Jesus is our shepherd, yaddi yaddi.

There's more: Another student, using the apparently popular message medium of pencils, handed out ones with "Jesus loves me, this I know because the Bible tells me so." (We shudder to think what would happen to a young student who uses the pencil and sharpens it until nothing after the word "because" can be seen: Without the rest of the answer, do they lose their faith?)

The principals tried to get the suit dismissed, saying the First Amendment doesn't apply to elementary school students. Luckily the 5th Circuit saw right through that subterfuge.

No word on when the actual trial might take place, or which pencils reporters will be allowed to use while covering it.