Federal appeals court won't reinstate 'Jesus speech' lawsuit

A federal appeals court Friday rejected a former Lewis-Palmer High School student's claim that her free-speech rights were violated when she was disciplined for bringing up Jesus in her graduation speech.

In a 34-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed the case brought by Erica Corder.

The appeals court ruled the case was moot. The panel noted that Corder was allowed to graduate after submitting an e-mail statement in which she acknowledged not letting the school's principal or her fellow valedictorians know of her plan to make the religious appeal as part of her brief speech in 2006.

Corder's lawyers had argued that the school's unwritten policy of having administrators review the content of such speeches was an unconstitutional restriction on her freedom of speech.

However, the appeals court rejected the arguments made by Corder's attorneys from Liberty Counsel in Lynchburg, Va.

Liberty Counsel founder Matthew Staver said he will recommend to Corder that she take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He said the ruling conflicts with a similar case in Florida in which an appeals court upheld a student's right to make religious statements during graduation.

"This is not school speech, this is student speech," Staver said. "This was not the message of the school. It was her personal message."

Robin Adair, spokeswoman for Lewis-Palmer School District 38 in Monument, said officials there were pleased that the court ruled in the district's favor.

"This was clearly a school-sponsored event that was subject to the direction and control of school officials," she said in a prepared statement.

The case stemmed from a graduation ceremony in which Corder was one of 15 valedictorians with grade-point averages of 4.0. School officials gave the group a choice of picking a speaker, or each giving a short speech. They chose the latter.

The school's principal required the students to present their speeches in advance for review, which Corder did.

However, on graduation day, she gave a different speech in which she brought up Jesus Christ.

"If you don't already know him personally I encourage you to find out more about the sacrifice he made for you so that you now have the opportunity to live in eternity with him," she said.

After the speech, school officials told her she would not graduate without submitting an apology. She wrote a note stating she was sorry if anyone was offended by her remarks.

The appellate court held that school officials acted reasonably because the speech was at a school-sponsored event and that the prior review by the principal related to learning.

They found the same for the apology demand.

The court noted that the advance review was required of all the valedictorians.

"Simply because Corder's valedictory speech happened to mention her religious views does not support the allegation that she was disciplined for her religious views," the court said.

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