News Release
For Immediate Release: 7.15.25
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
More than 20 Friend-of-the-Court Briefs Urge Supreme Court to Overturn Santa Fe v. Doe
First Liberty’s petition to the U.S. Supreme Court finds broad support across the faith, legal communities.
Washington, DC—In a show of overwhelming support at the Supreme Court of the United States, First Liberty Institute’s petition in Cambridge Christian School v. FHSAA, filed alongside attorneys from Bois Schiller Flexner LLP, Winston and Strawn, and Jones Day, received more than twenty friend-of-the-court briefs. The briefs, representing nearly 100 individuals and organizations, highlight the danger of the appellate decision and support First Liberty’s call for Santa Fe v. Doe to be overturned.
Jesse Panuccio, of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said: “The influx of friend-of-the-court briefs in this case demonstrate the dangers of the Eleventh Circuit’s decision, which permits the state to censor religious speech by calling it ‘government speech.’ That so many organizations, individuals, and law firms are urging the Supreme Court to hear this case shows how important it is for the Supreme Court to continue to make clear that the Constitution forbids religious discrimination in all its guises.”
“We are grateful to so many who gave of their time to write and file these briefs for the simple proposition that government cannot treat religious speech—like prayer—as second class,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel, Jeremy Dys. “Our hope is that the Supreme Court will take this important case and remind its lower courts of the First Amendment’s double protection for religious expression.”
The briefs come from across the world of arts, sports, faith, and politics, including:
In addition to the diverse set of Americans named in the briefs, authors of the brief drew from the nation’s most prominent law firms and noted Supreme Court practitioners, including:
All the briefs, including First Liberty’s petition, can be found here.
Background on the case:
In 2015, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) forbade Cambridge Christian School and its opponent—another Christian school—from praying over the loudspeaker at the Citrus Bowl ahead of the state championship football game. The FHSAA claimed the Santa Fe case required it to censor Cambridge’s speech because the stadium was city-owned and the FHSAA a government actor. The Eleventh Circuit eventually agreed that the FHSAA could censor the religious speech, concluding that the requested prayer of Cambridge Christian was government speech, despite the many private messages the FHSAA allowed over the loudspeaker, including secular welcoming messages, private corporate promotions, and halftime music and commentary by the schools.
The petition asks:
(1) “Whether Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000), compels a finding of government speech where two private Christian schools sought to engage in communal prayer over a loudspeaker before a football game organized by a state athletic association that otherwise permitted a wide array of private speech over the loudspeaker and should therefore be overruled in light of this Court’s later holdings in Matal v. Tam, 582 U.S. 218 (2017), Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 596 U.S. 243 (2022), and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. 507 (2022), and
(2) “Whether the endorsement factor of the government- speech doctrine revives Lemon’s ‘endorsement test offshoot’ that ‘this Court long ago abandoned,’ Kennedy, 597 U.S. at 534, by providing a special veto for a private party’s religious speech on any government owned platform.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org.
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