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Teacher Wins Right To Display Classroom Banners With Religious References

By Howard M. Friedman

In Johnson v. Poway Unified School District, (SD CA, Feb. 25, 2010), a California federal district court held that high school teacher Bradley Johnson's rights were violated when school officials told him to take down two 7-foot wide banners he had placed on his classroom wall. One displayed quotes such as "God Bless America" and "In God We Trust." The other quoted from the Declaration of Independence, with the term "Creator" in the quote in all capital letters. The school permits teachers to create their own displays in their classrooms, so long as the displays are not disruptive. Other teachers had posted items such as a Tibetan prayer flag, posters of Mahatma Gandhi, the Dali Lama and Malcolm X, as well as posters with views on a wide variety of other issues. Johnson's posters had hung in his classroom without objection for 20 years.

The court concluded that the school had created a limited public forum for teachers to express their views on their classroom walls, and that officials had engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in squelching Johnson's speech. Establishment Clause concerns were unjustified since, according to the court, there is no realistic danger that an observer would think the school district was endorsing a particular religion. Moreover, the court concluded that by permitting Buddhist, Hindu, and anti-religious speech by some teachers while silencing the Judeo-Christian speech of Johnson, the school violates the Establishment Clause, the Equal Protection Clause and the "no preference" clause of the California Constitution. The court ordered school officials to immediately permit Johnson to redisplay the two banners at issue, and also awarded Johnson nominal damages. AP yesterday reported on the decision, and the Thomas More Law Center that represented Johnson issued a release on the decision, including photos of the disputed banners. (See prior related posting.)

Full post as published by Religion Clause on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).