Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Against Cambridge Christian in 2015 Pregame Prayer Lawsuit

A federal appeals court ruled that the Florida High School Athletic Association did not violate the First Amendment rights of Cambridge Christian School when it blocked a Tampa Christian school from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 high school football championship game.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2022 ruling by U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell in the lawsuit that Cambridge Christian School filed. In a 52-page opinion, the panel concluded that announcements over the loudspeaker at the 2015 game were “government speech” because they were scripted and controlled by the athletic association. Judge Ed Carnes, who wrote the opinion and was joined by Judges Gerald Tjoflat and Britt Grant, stated that “every word of that script was put there by an FHSAA employee.” The court said blocking a prayer over the public-address system did not violate free-speech rights.

The case was also affected by later state action. In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature approved a law requiring high schools to allow “brief opening remarks,” which could include prayers, before championship events. The appeals court said that law made parts of the lawsuit moot, but it still needed to rule on the First Amendment issues because Cambridge Christian had sought “nominal damages.”

The dispute stems from the 2015 championship game at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium, which pitted Cambridge Christian against Jacksonville’s University Christian School. The FHSAA, a nonprofit governing body for high school sports, denied the use of the loudspeaker. According to the opinion, the teams prayed on the field before and after the game, but those prayers could not be heard by people in the stands.

The procedural history stretched across several years. Honeywell initially dismissed the case in 2017, but the Atlanta-based appeals court overturned that dismissal in 2019 and sent the case back to her. Her 2022 judgment favored the association, which led Cambridge Christian to appeal again. While the FHSAA defended its decision, the Florida Department of Education filed a brief supporting the school. The Republican-controlled Legislature then approved the 2023 law, which states that “such remarks may not be longer than 2 minutes per participating school” and that the athletic association “may not control, monitor, or review the content of the opening remarks.”

The appeals court also rejected the argument that the association’s stance violated the right to free exercise of religion. Because the association was regulating its own expression when it restricted pregame speech over the loudspeaker at the 2015 championships, the opinion said, Cambridge Christian’s free exercise claims failed. The ruling reflects a principle that public bodies answer for speech they script and control (Proverbs 11:1).

The court did not rule for the school on every issue. It said Cambridge Christian lacked legal standing to pursue other parts of the case, including an injunction to prevent the FHSAA from repeating its 2015 prayer ban. The court noted that the school had not returned to the championship game since 2015. “Hope springs eternal but standing cannot be built on hope,” the opinion said, adding that there was “nothing to suggest that the team’s participation in a future football state championship is imminent or even likely.”

On the remaining issue, the opinion said the new law and policy “unambiguously allow for brief opening remarks over the PA system at state championship events.” It said the only content restriction was that remarks “may not be derogatory, rude, or threatening,” and that “there are no specific restrictions applicable only to prayer.” According to the court, the law and policy “effectively ‘repeal’ the FHSAA’s earlier prayer restriction,” so the allegedly wrongful conduct “cannot reasonably be expected to recur.”

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