CV NEWS FEED // A Washington, D.C. district court recently handed down a historic ruling in favor of a Christian athletics association, declaring that a public high school cannot discriminate against the association simply because it requires its leaders to be Christian.
The case, decided on July 11, centered around a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and Jackson-Reed High School in Washington, D.C. FCA is a national organization that brings student athletes together on college, high school, and middle school campuses to form groups for prayer and spiritual growth, known as “huddles.”
According to an emailed statement from the Becket Fund, the religious freedom law firm representing FCA, the lawsuit “is the first time that a federal court has found a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the school context.”
The case began in 2022, when an assistant baseball coach at the school told local FCA staff that there was “no place for a group like FCA in a public school” due to its religious beliefs.
According to the court’s ruling, the coach filed a complaint with the District’s Comprehensive Alternative Resolution and Equity Team (CARE), alleging that FCA discriminates against LGBT individuals and “makes participants sign a sexual purity statement which prohibits homosexual acts.”
Becket Law reported that the coach accused the school of violating the District of Columbia Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, among other characteristics. The Act also prohibits discrimination based on religion.
“Because of the coach’s complaint, DCPS [D.C. Public Schools] immediately stripped the Jackson-Reed FCA huddle of official recognition, stopped it from meeting, removed it from the list of student clubs, deleted its club website, and launched a formal investigation into FCA,” Becket Law reported.
The FCA huddle explained during the investigation that any student is always welcome to join, but that the students who lead prayer, Bible studies, or religious teaching must be Christian.
As stated in the court’s ruling, any student leader of FCA must “affirm his or her agreement with FCA’s statement of Faith,” which declares that marriage is “a lifelong covenant relationship between a man and a woman” and condemns “sexual relations outside of marriage” and “any sexually immoral act … including homosexuality.”
FCA additionally declared that it has never used a “sexual purity statement,” unlike the original complaint alleges.
CARE found fault with FCA’s criteria for leadership, and DCPS required the huddle to open leadership to anyone “regardless of sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or personal belief” before it would be allowed back on campus.
According to the court’s ruling, DCPS would have also required FCA to prove and promise that students are not or would not be required to sign the alleged “sexual purity statement” to join the huddle.
FCA appealed to DCPS twice, pointing out that several other student clubs on Jackson-Reed’s campus are exclusive and based on sex, race, or other characteristics. FCA also pointed to a 2023 lawsuit filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in which the court ruled that the San Jose Unified School District could not remove FCA from its campus based on its Christian leadership requirements.
FCA also claimed that DCPS violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Equal Access Act, and the First Amendment by suspending the Jackson-Reed huddle.
When the appeals failed, FCA filed a federal lawsuit against DCPS in May 2024. The court ruled on July 11 that FCA may return to Jackson-Reed’s campus with Christian leaders.
