Wisconsin's Fond du Lac High School finally allowed a student to close an announcement with "God bless America" after The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sent a letter notifying the school that it was violating his constitutional rights. The school changed its policy the same day it received the letter.
Calvin Freiburger, a junior and a member of the school’s Republican club, twice delivered over the school’s public announcement system, used by all student groups, a message about the club’s “Take a Solider to the Movies” Drive. The announcements, made in an effort to collect movies for U.S. soldiers serving overseas, concluded with the phrase “Thank you and God bless America.”
After delivering his second announcement, Freiburger was repeatedly told by the school’s principal and assistant principal that he could not use the phrase “God bless America” and that he needed to remove the word “God” from all future announcements. These school officials claimed that such speech violates principles of separation of church and state. When Freiburger refused to abide by the condition, he was prohibited from making any further announcements about the Drive.
In its letter, The Becket Fund explained that “Mr. Freiburger’s decision to use the phrase 'God Bless America' to conclude the public announcement that he authored and spoke on behalf of himself and the student club he represented was private student-initiated speech, fully protected by the First Amendment.” By censoring Mr. Freiburger’s speech because of its perceived religious message, the school ran afoul of a long line of Supreme Court precedent that prohibits the government from singling out private religious speech for disfavor.
Read our original press release.