TAMPA, Fla. – A federal appeals court has declined to revisit its earlier decision siding with the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) in a long-running dispute over whether preventing a Tampa-based Christian school from broadcasting a pre-game prayer violated First Amendment rights.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from Cambridge Christian School for an “en banc” hearing, effectively upholding a September ruling by a three-judge panel that confirmed a 2022 decision by U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell.
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The case stems from a 2015 high school football championship game held at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. Cambridge Christian School had sought to use the stadium’s public address system to deliver a prayer before the game, but the FHSAA, the nonprofit organization governing high school sports in Florida, denied the request.
Although players from Cambridge Christian and their opponents, Jacksonville’s University Christian School, prayed on the field before and after the game, they were not broadcast to the audience.
In its 52-page opinion, the three-judge panel ruled that the public-address announcements at the game constituted “government speech” because they were scripted and controlled by the FHSAA. As a result, the court concluded that blocking the prayer did not violate the school’s free speech rights under the First Amendment.
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The panel said that the public address system at the stadium was used to communicate messages controlled by the FHSAA, making it government speech. Therefore, the denial of the prayer request did not infringe on Cambridge Christian School’s constitutional rights.
The legal battle has spanned nearly a decade, but recent legislative changes in Florida have added a new layer to the controversy. In 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis and the state Legislature passed a law requiring high schools to allow “brief opening remarks”—which may include prayers—before championship events.
While this law addresses some aspects of the dispute, the appeals court noted that it felt compelled to rule on the First Amendment issues because Cambridge Christian School sought nominal damages.
By rejecting the request for an en banc hearing, the 11th Circuit leaves intact the earlier rulings that have consistently supported the FHSAA’s position.
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