School Prayer

The panel concluded that announcements over the loudspeaker at the 2015 game were “government speech.”

A new state law could help short-circuit a legal battle about whether the school was improperly barred from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2016 high-school football championship game.

The law gives the state more power over a group that governs high school sports. Gov. DeSantis signed the bill at Cambridge Christian School in Tampa, which is involved in a legal battle over praying before games.

Bill sponsor Jay Collins, R-Tampa, said the bill is intended to provide state “oversight” of the athletics board.

It comes as an appeals court prepares to hear arguments in a battle between the Florida High School Athletic Association Cambridge Christian School in Tampa.

The Tampa school went to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year after a federal judge backed a decision by the FHSAA to prevent a prayer over the loudspeaker.

A Supreme Court decision prompted speculation that prayer would become a bigger part of the game-day fabric, though that hasn’t seemed to be the case. Outside Detroit, coaches have found ways for their diverse rosters to pray if they wish.

In this week’s brief, attorneys for the Department of Education wrote that the association “completely disregarded core First Amendment principles when it refused to allow Cambridge Christian School to pray over the loudspeaker at its 2015 championship game solely because of the religious message of the prayer, even though secular, non-governmental messages were allowed.”

It cited legal precedents, including U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of a high school football coach who lost his job after praying on the field after games.

The ruling said the Florida High School Athletic Association did not violate First Amendment rights when it refused to allow Cambridge Christian and Jacksonville’s University Christian School to offer a prayer over the public-address system before their game.

DeSantis said it allows students "to reflect and to be able to pray as they see fit.”

Cambridge Christian School is involved in a federal lawsuit after being denied use of a public address system before a 2016 high school football title game.