NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge ordered a public school system to stop allowing in- school Bible giveaways, saying the practice violates the First Amendment separation of church and state.
“Distribution of Bibles is a religious activity without a secular purpose” and amounts to school board promotion of Christianity, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board.
As requested by both sides, Barbier made a summary judgment based only on the written briefs — something judges may do only if the law is absolutely clear.
Defense attorney Christopher Moody said late Tuesday that the school board would appeal the ruling.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit for an anonymous family whose daughter said she felt pressured into taking a Bible from the Gideons International, which was visiting the school, because she was afraid her classmates would call her a “devil-worshiper” and think she didn’t believe in God.
