Appeals court rules San Jose school district violated student athletes’ religious freedom
In a ruling hailed as a religious freedom victory, an appellate court found San Jose Unified School District violated the rights of a Christian student athlete club by effectively kicking it off campuses over its leaders’ affirmation of their faith’s teachings that marriage must be between a man and a woman.
The ruling involved a 2020 lawsuit brought by two former Pioneer High School students after the school revoked their Fellowship of Christian Athletes student club status over its leaders’ faith affirmation, which school officials argued violated district anti-discrimination policies protecting LGBTQ rights.
“This is a huge win for these brave kids, who persevered through adversity and never took their eye off the ball: equal access with integrity,” said Daniel Blomberg, vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, one of the groups that represented the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. “Today’s ruling ensures religious students are again treated fairly in San Jose and throughout California.”
San Jose Unified School District said in a statement that it is reviewing the court’s opinion and assessing its options and next steps.
“While we are disappointed in today’s decision, the San Jose Unified School District respects the judicial system and its essential role in our democracy,” San Jose Unified said in a statement. “The most important consideration will be how to continue to implement San Jose Unified’s longstanding policy against discrimination in district programs and activities.”
San Jose Unified had appealed to a full, “en banc” panel of 11 judges on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals after a group of three Ninth Circuit judges who considered an appeal ruled against the district in August 2020.
In a published opinion Wednesday, the en banc court found that San Jose Unified had penalized the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club “based on its religious beliefs” and “treated comparable secularactivity more favorably than religious exercise” in violation of constitutional religious freedom protections.
The majority opinion was written by Judge Consuelo M. Callahan. Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia dissented, and two other judges concurred and dissented in part.
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