9th CIRCUIT: STEALTH DECISION PERMITS ISLAMIC ...

... indoctrination in California public schools.

Christian students and parents cannot sue a school district where some seventh-graders pretended to be Muslims for three weeks during a course in world history, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the role-playing game was not a religious exercise that violated anybody's constitutional rights.

The decision was issued one day after the U.S. House of Representatives chastised the 9th Circuit for ruling earlier this month that parents can't sue public schools for providing information about sex. That decision "deplorably infringed on parental rights," said the House resolution.

Thursday's decision came down in an unpublished memorandum, indicating the judges considered it routine.

San Francisco U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton [had] dismissed the suit two years ago, saying Carlin was merely teaching and not indoctrinating. Hamilton found that the students did not engage in actual religious exercises.

The 9th Circuit upheld her decision in a five-sentence ruling, saying only that the activities weren't "overt religious exercises" that would raise concerns under the First Amendment prohibition of "establishment of religion."

Since the decision was rendered by memorandum, I'm told it cannot be used as precedent, which is just the 9th Circuit's way of sticking it to its critics.


HT: The Cassandra Page via The JAWA Report

9th Circuit; Church state; Courts; Islam; Judicial activism