The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) forbade Cambridge Christian School from leading a prayer at football games conducted by the Association, and the school argued this violated free speech and burdened its religion freedom. In November 2019, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of the free-speech and free-exercise claims. During the second appeal to the Eleventh Circuit (after the district ruled for the FHSAA on summary judgment), in October 2022 we joined partners in filing an amicus brief arguing that it was not a free-exercise violation to deny (and would be an establishment clause violation to permit) the prayer.
Oral argument was held in June 2023, and supplemental briefing was completed in September 2023. Additional supplemental briefs were filed in Summer 2024. On September 3, 2024, the court affirmed the grant of FHSAA on both the free-speech and free-exercise claims on government-speech grounds. It also vacated the district-court’s judgment in favor of the FHSAA on the declaratory- and injunctive-relief claims and instead instructed the court to dismiss those claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. A petition for rehearing en banc was filed on September 24, 2024, and was denied on February 6, 2025. The appellate mandate issued on February 14.
