California’s Ninth Court of Appeals has ruled that San José Unified School District’s decision to no longer recognize a Christian athletics group which forced them to leave a school, was unconstitutional, the Daily Caller reports.
In 2019, the Fellowship for Christian Athletes (FCA) which had functioned at a school in the district for several years was banned after a teacher complained the organization was not only sharing the Christian faith with students but also only accepted traditional marriages as valid.
Among other things, the FCA requires those in leadership positions to hold the view that physical intimacy is only allowed in a marriage relationship between a man and a woman.
The FCA with the help of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sued the school district in 2020. After losing in lower courts which prevented the FCA from operating in the school, it finally won at the court of appeals which ruled that the organization’s First Amendment freedom of religion rights had been violated.
In its ruling, the Ninth Court of Appeal stated that the FCA can’t be treated differently from other secular organizations because of its religious beliefs:
“The District, rather than treating FCA like comparable secular student groups whose membership was limited based on criteria including sex, race, ethnicity, and gender identity, penalized it based on its religious beliefs. Because the Constitution prohibits such a double standard — even in the absence of any motive to do so — we reverse the district court’s denial of FCA’s motion for a preliminary injunction.”
OpentheWord.org 
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