Published: September 15, 2011
Buddha’s fine, God is not
Appeals court says school can force California teacher to remove patriotic banners that mention God from his classroom
A Poway high school math teacher who displayed patriotic banners in his classroom that mentioned God has lost his appeal in federal court and been ordered to pay substantial court costs.
Brad Johnson, a teacher at Westview High School in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, was ordered by school officials in 2007 to take down classroom banners that contained historical slogans such as “In God We Trust, ” “One Nation under God, ” as well as the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, because, school officials said, “they may offend a Muslim student.”
Johnson had been displaying the banners for 25 years and has taught in the Poway Unified School District for more than 30 years. He sued the school district in U.S. District Court, arguing that his First Amendment rights and his constitutional guarantee of equal protect of the law had been violated by the school district’s actions.
According to the Thomas More Law Center, which represented Johnson, the school district allowed religious classroom displays by other teachers, including one of a 35- to 40-foot string of Tibetan prayer flags with images of Buddha; a poster with the lyrics from John Lennon’s anti-religion song “Imagine;” a poster with Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins;” a poster of Muslim leader Malcolm X; and a poster of Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.
In February 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez ruled in favor of Johnson in a 32-page, strongly worded opinion critical of the Poway school district's aversion to mentioning God.
“[The school district officials] apparently fear their students are incapable of dealing with diverse viewpoints that include God’s place in American history and culture… That God places prominently in our Nation’s history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson’s public high school classroom walls,” wrote Judge Benitez. “It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God.”
In a closed-door meeting shortly after the ruling, the school district board voted to appeal Judge Benitez's ruling to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
That court issued its decision on Sept. 13. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously against Johnson and in favor of the school board.
“We consider whether a public school district infringes the First Amendment liberties of one of its teachers when it orders him not to use his public position as a pulpit from which to preach his own views on the role of God in our Nation’s history to the captive students in his mathematics classroom,” wrote Judge Richard Tallman in a 40-page ruling for the unanimous court. “The answer is clear: it does not.”
To add insult to injury, the final sentence of the court’s ruling said: “Johnson shall bear all the costs,” which could be in the thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars.
Ironically, even the ACLU sided with Johnson, arguing that if other teachers could use religious symbols, then Johnson could not be prohibited from doing likewise. The court ruled, however, that use of images of Buddha or teachings from a Hindu leader were educational in nature and not meant to proselytize students to a particular religion.
Charles LiMandri, West Coast Regional Director for the Thomas More Law Center, told California Catholic Daily that Johnson’s lawyers will first ask for a review of the decision by the full Ninth Circuit, and, failing a favorable opinion, would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
To read the full Ninth Circuit opinion, Click Here.
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