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Contact: Cindy Roberts (662) 844-5036 ext. 227
For Immediate Release:  4/20/2006

Ninth Circuit strikes again: Christian message on student t-shirt impermissible

(Tupelo, MS) - In a 2-1 decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today upheld a lower court ruling denying relief to a high school student who had been told by his principal he could not wear a t-shirt bearing the words “Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Has Condemned” handwritten on the front, and “Homosexuality Is Shameful” on the back. Judge Alex Kozinski dissented.

The case arose when Tyler Harper, a sophomore at Poway High School, responded in opposition to the “Day of Silence,” a school-sanctioned event promoted by a radical homosexual group and designed to advance the homosexual agenda. Harper’s peaceful opposition was expressed by means of his t-shirt, which he wore on the 2004 Day of Silence without incident. He also wore the shirt the next day, however, and was confronted by school officials and ordered to remove the shirt. He refused, and this lawsuit ensued.

Writing for the court, Judge Stephen Reinhardt held that the school did not violate Harper’s constitutional rights because the message on his shirt was offensive to gay and lesbian students.

Commenting on the ruling, American Family Association Center for Law & Policy senior trial attorney Brian Fahling described Reinhardt’s opinion “as extraordinary for all the wrong reasons.” “Judge Reinhardt views disagreement with homosexuality as morally equivalent to being racist or anti-Semitic, and he wants to impose his view on the rest of the nation,” continued Fahling.

Stephen Crampton, CLP chief counsel described the opinion by Judge Reinhardt as “the quintessential example of judicial activism.” “To read the opinion gives one an eerie sense of what it must have been like to live in Stalin’s Russia or Hitler’s Germany—dissenting voices simply will not be tolerated,” added Crampton.

The case is Harper v. Poway Unified School District.

American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over two million online supporters.

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