ID: School Fights to Use Religious Books in Classroom

Courthouse News Service: Judges Johnnie Rawlinson and William Fletcher seemed skeptical of Cortman’s First Amendment claims. “How do you have a First Amendment argument if, in fact, it’s the government’s speech that’s being regulated?” Rawlinson asked. Cortman replied that it was the speech of a local school district, but Rawlinson countered that the school has to comply with the governing body . . . Cortman claimed in his rebuttal that the Charter School Commission has no authority to impose the ban on religious works and only the State Board of Education can decide curriculum. He also claimed that the school was shut down in retaliation for opposing the book-ban policy.