Becket Fund will pursue Zachary Hood case in District Court

Jun 18, 2001

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty will continue to pursue the case of Carol Hood v. Medford Township Board of Education in U.S. District Court in Newark, NJ, Becket Fund President Kevin J. Hasson said today. The Becket Fund had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a portion of the case involving a public school teacher's refusal to let first grader Zachary Hood read a story from his "Beginner's Bible," but today the Court denied the petition for a writ of certiorari without comment. However, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had sent another portion of the case, involving a Thanksgiving poster, back to the district court for further proceedings, and that will now become the focus of the case.

"While we're disappointed that the Supreme Court didn't accept the Beginner's Bible part of the case, a win at the district court on the Thanksgiving poster part of the case would establish the same precedent," Hasson said. "We're disappointed in the short run, but optimistic in the long run."

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals had heard arguments in the case en banc in February, 2000, but the sharply divided court split 6-6 on the Beginner's Bible part of the case in August. The Becket Fund appealed to the Supreme Court in November, holding off on filing an amended complaint on the Thanksgiving poster portion of the case pending a decision by the Supreme Court on the petition for cert.

Hasson noted that language in last week's Supreme Court decision in Good News Club v. Milford Central School greatly strengthens the Becket Fund's claim of viewpoint discrimination in the Hood case. School officials in both cases argued that allowing student-initiated religious speech in school could be misconstrued as government "endorsement" of religion. But in Good News Club, the court held that "even if we were to inquire into the minds of schoolchildren in this case, we cannot say the danger that children would misperceive the endorsement of religion is any greater than the danger that they would perceive a hostility toward the religious viewpoint if the Club were excluded from the public forum."

Relevant Cases

• Hood v. Medford Township Board of Education