Saginaw religious rights case appealed to U.S. Supreme Court

The Alliance Defense Fund has announced that they are filing an appeal (called a cert petition) with the Supreme Court in a Michigan case involving a student’s right to do a religious-themed project for school (see our previous report on the case here).

The case involved a 5th grader in Saginaw, Joel Curry, whose class was assigned a project to create a product to “sell” in a simulated school marketplace. When he chose to do a religious-themed product, the school told him he could not.

Curry chose to make candy cane Christmas ornaments with a card attached to each one explaining the religious significance of various details about the ornaments. His teacher told him he had to get permission from the principal for the project; the principal told him he could not enter the project in the mock marketplace because it would look like the school is pushing religion.

I was astonished that both the district court and the 6th circuit appeals court ruled in favor of the school. The guidelines on religion in public schools that were sent out to every school in the country in 1995, developed and agreed to by dozens of organizations ranging from the ACLU to the National Association of Evangelicals, clearly states that such an assignment is allowed:

Students may express their religious beliefs in the form of reports, homework and artwork, and such expressions are constitutionally protected. Teachers may not reject or correct such submissions simply because they include a religious symbol or address religious themes. Likewise, teachers may not require students to modify, include or excise religious views in their assignments, if germane. These assignments should be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance, relevance, appearance and grammar.

This is based on a long series of Supreme Court precedents. The school’s argument is that the project gives the appearance of violating the Establishment Clause (the portion of the first amendment that forbids the government from endorsing or promoting religious beliefs), but it would appear that way only to someone who didn’t understand the situation. Because each student got to pick their own product to make and sell in the marketplace, there is no possible establishment clause violation because it is the student, not the school, who chose to produce the candy canes. The situation is no different from a student choosing to sing a religious song in a school talent show, or choosing to write a biography paper on a religious figure for English class, both of which are constitutionally protected.

The Supreme Court accepts and hears only about 2 percent of the cases they are requested to hear. If they agree to hear this case, I expect them to overturn the lower courts and uphold the student’s right to free religious expression.