The Florida Department of Education is backing a Tampa Christian school in a legal battle about whether the school should have been allowed to offer a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 football championship game. Attorneys for the department filed a 28-page brief this week at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blasting the Florida High School Athletic Association, which rejected Cambridge Christian School’s request to offer a prayer before the high-school game in Orlando. Cambridge Christian challenged the constitutionality of the association’s decision and went to the Atlanta-based appeals court after U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell in April said the association did not violate the school’s First Amendment rights.
The Florida Department of Education is backing a Tampa Christian school in a legal battle about whether the school should have been allowed to offer a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 football championship game. Attorneys for the department filed a 28-page brief this week at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blasting the Florida High School Athletic Association, which rejected Cambridge Christian School’s request to offer a prayer before the high-school game in Orlando. Cambridge Christian challenged the constitutionality of the association’s decision and went to the Atlanta-based appeals court after U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell in April said the association did not violate the school’s First Amendment rights.