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FFRF ends Ga. school district’s annual prayer walks

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has successfully halted a Georgia public school district’s promotion of Christian “prayer walks.” 

A concerned student informed the state-church watchdog that Laurens County Schools had organized and promoted a “prayer walk” every year before the start of school. Per a promotional post from the district’s official Facebook account, the 2026 devotional gatherings occurred on Aug. 5 and 6 at each of the district’s schools. The flyer for the events invited students and families to “join us for a time of WORSHIP and PRAYER as we walk the halls of our campus and each school to pray over the staff and students who will enter these buildings.”

The student who contacted FFRF explained the alienating effect of the district’s religious promotion: “I go to this school district because it is public, free, and doesn’t/shouldn’t officially endorse any religion. I constantly feel uncomfortable because I follow a spiritual path different from everybody else. … I just wish I could get my education without having religion shoved down my throat.”

FFRF commends the student who spoke up about the district’s religious promotion. Students have the right to pray individually or participate in genuinely private religious activities, but public school districts must not organize, promote or endorse religious worship.

“The district displayed blatant favoritism toward religion over nonreligion and Christianity over all other faiths by using official social media to invite the entire school community to participate in school-sponsored Christian prayer walks through each of the District’s schools,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to Superintendent Otha Hall. 

FFRF reminded the superintendent that the district serves a diverse population that includes not only Christian students, families and employees, but also those who are nonreligious as well as members of minority faiths. When the District continually organizes, promotes, and invites students to participate in “WORSHIP and PRAYER” at an annual on-campus Christian event, it sends an exclusionary message to students who are non-Christians, such as our complainant. Up to 26 percent of Georgians are nonreligious, and more than half of Generation Z (those born after 1996) is non-Christian, including 43 percent who are nonreligious. 

Thankfully, the district’s legal representative confirmed that the district has taken corrective action.

“The social media post referenced in your letter has been removed,” Aparesh Paul recently responded. “Additionally, district administration has reviewed with school administrators issues and obligations arising from the Establishment Clause, including an appearance of endorsing or promoting religion or religious activity.” 

FFRF is pleased to have stopped the exclusionary practice.

“We’re glad Laurens County Schools took this complaint seriously, removed its promotion and reminded administrators that public schools exist to educate, not to indoctrinate,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Public schools must ensure that all of their events and promotions are secular, which ensures they are welcoming to all students.”  

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 40,000 members across the country, including over 600 members in Georgia, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

The post FFRF ends Ga. school district’s annual prayer walks appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.

FFRF Supreme Court brief pushes back on religious preschool discrimination claims 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a friend-of-the-court brief before the U.S. Supreme Court to refute a specious argument by a Catholic church that seeks to discriminate in a publicly funded preschool program.

Colorado voters overwhelmingly approved creating a fund for a statewide, voluntary, universal preschool program in 2020. In 2022, the state adopted the Early Childhood Act, which established rules for the program, including a nondiscrimination requirement. St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton, Colo., is arguing that the nondiscrimination requirement “excludes” it from the program because it forbids discrimination against LGBTQ+ 4-year-olds or 4-year-olds with LGBTQ+ parents in accordance with Catholic doctrine. The church contends that the nondiscrimination requirement is not a neutral and generally applicable law because preschools are allowed to prioritize seats for children with disabilities and low-income children. This, they say, is an exemption to the requirement that undermines the state’s nondiscrimination interests comparable to their desire to discriminate against LGBTQ+ parents and children. The Trump administration has filed a brief backing the church.

FFRF asserts that the church’s argument fundamentally and deliberately misconstrues disability and income nondiscrimination. Nondiscrimination law reflects the reality that to treat people with disabilities and those who are low-income exactly the same as others often perpetuates inequality rather than resolving it. Ensuring actual equality for people with disabilities and those who are low-income is not an “exemption” from nondiscrimination requirements, but instead is fully aligned with the legal landscape.

“To argue that ensuring equality for preschool students with disabilities or students whose families are low-income is comparable to LGBTQ+ discrimination is like comparing apples and durians,” FFRF’s brief states. “One is a popular air freshener scent while the other would quickly empty a room.”

FFRF’s brief points out that mandating religious exemptions whenever any secular exemption is allowed would create a chaotic system and would require lawmaking to a degree that legislatures are not prepared to handle. The First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause does not give an individual the ability to avoid compliance with a “valid and neutral law of general applicability.” The fact that Colorado allows preschools to prioritize serving low-income preschoolers and preschoolers with disabilities does not undermine Colorado’s interests in nondiscrimination.

“Americans with disabilities have fought long and hard to be able to participate as full members of society,” FFRF’s brief asserts. “Petitioners’ argument threatens to callously use those efforts towards inclusion to instead nullify anti-discrimination laws across the country.”

States have historically required nondiscrimination requirements for private organizations to participate in public funding programs. The petitioners complain that the nondiscrimination requirement at issue in this legislation was “targeted” to burden their religion. In reality, most public funding programs have strings attached to ensure they achieve their goals.

There is another fundamental problem with the petitioners’approach. People acting in bad faith use religion as a cloak. Questionable religious exemption claims are still asserted against laws across the country. In 2019, a religious preschool argued that the ministerial exception should apply to its teachers in response to an action filed by California to require the preschool to provide its teachers with rest breaks, meal breaks and overtime pay. Religious exemption claims have been made in the last 20 years against such things as minimum wage laws, workplace harassment laws, laws prohibiting discrimination against pregnant women, laws providing for evolution-based science education, and even the crimes of kidnapping, sexual assault and corporal punishment, among others.

For these reasons, the state/church watchdog maintains in its amicus brief that the petitioners’ arguments should be rejected and that the U.S. Supreme Court should affirm the decision of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The Supreme Court should put a stop to improper religious discrimination claims that are untethered from reality,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “If churches want public money, they have to follow the same rules as everyone else.”

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on Nov. 3.

Amicus curiae Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is the largest national association of freethinkers, representing atheists, agnostics, and others who form their opinions about religion based on reason, rather than faith, tradition, or authority. Its two primary purposes are to educate the public about nontheism and to defend the constitutional separation between state and church. FFRF and its members are concerned that religious exemptions within government-funded programs would allow believers to discriminate and inflict harm on others in violation of fundamental civil rights protections.

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‘We Dissent’ new episode analyzes the latest Supreme Court term

With the latest Supreme Court term officially complete, the hosts of “We Dissent” dissect the potential impacts of the important decisions.

On Episode 56, FFRF Deputy Legal Director Liz Cavell, Americans United for Separation of Church and State Legal Director Rebecca Markert and National Women’s Law Center Director of Nominations & Democracy Alison Gill recap the recent Supreme Court term and its implications for religious liberty. They break down the court’s rulings on conversion therapy bans, religious rights for prisoners and transgender sports bans in public schools. Then, they discuss the ever-expanding “shadow docket” and the court’s alarming preference for deciding cases with no public hearing, briefing or transparency. 

“We Dissent,” which first aired in May 2022, is a legal affairs show offering legal wisdom from the secular viewpoint of women lawyers. The show is a collaboration of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center.

Find previous episodes here, which examine developments affecting the separation of church and state, particularly in the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts. Past episodes include discussions about court reform, religion behind bars and abortion and also feature a range of expert guests.
      
Episodes are available at the “We Dissent” website, on YouTube, Spotify or wherever your podcasts are found. Be sure to stay up to date with the “We Dissent” podcast on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Bluesky.

Tune in regularly to “We Dissent” for compelling legal discussion and insights!

The post ‘We Dissent’ new episode analyzes the latest Supreme Court term appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.