The Freedom From Religion Foundation vows to continue its work to uphold secular public schools in Oklahoma despite the baseless lawsuit filed against it this week by the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.
“We will not stop our work defending the constitutional rights of students and families in Oklahoma,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “Walters is mistaken if he thinks free speech and religious freedom are subservient to his religious beliefs.”
The case is now in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III. It appears to be an unprecedented lawsuit against a group working for the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government.
A national nonprofit state/church watchdog since 1978, FFRF offers legal advocacy at no cost to the public, ending more than 200 violations of state/church separation around the country last year alone.
FFRF has received recent requests to end religion in public schools from parents with students in Oklahoma public schools. It successfully ended serious violations in Achille Public Schools involving mandatory prayer over the intercom and schools sponsoring bible readings to open elementary and high school classes.
When FFRF cannot correct violations through education and persuasion, it also litigates and has brought more than 100 lawsuits, winning many significant First Amendment victories. It currently is part of the coalition lawsuit against Walters and the state Education Department for seeking to spend millions of tax dollars to purchase bibles and bible-infused instructional materials for Oklahoma schools.
FFRF has called on Walters to resign on numerous occasions because of his misuse of his office to promote religion in Oklahoma schools, such as supporting prayer over the intercom at Prague Elementary School. Walters said about FFRF at that time, “I hope every Oklahoman prays that this radical, out-of-state, Soros-funded group learns about our Constitution and the rights it guarantees.” (FFRF, regretfully, does not receive funding from George Soros.)
In announcing the lawsuit, Walters said: “Oklahoma will never be bullied by radical, out-of-state atheists who use intimidation and harassment against kids.” He then accuses FFRF, a group that works to uphold the First Amendment, of “trampling” on it.
“Walters has it backward,” comments FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “He claims FFRF is ‘trampling on the First Amendment’ when he is the bully attacking religious freedom and seeking to force his personal religious beliefs on a captive audience of schoolchildren.”
FFRF notes that 26 percent of adult Oklahomans are atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular, and another 2 percent belong to non-Christian faiths. Oklahoma cannot adopt Christianity as a state religion under the federal and Oklahoma Constitutions.
FFRF will continue its patriotic commitment to uphold the First Amendment with its constitutional principle of a secular government. The association is confident that the courts will reject Walters’ meritless claims and thereby reaffirm that public schools must remain free from religious coercion and indoctrination.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 42,000 members nationwide and hundreds of members in Oklahoma. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
