Did this guy get his law degree from Liberty University? That would explain it.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt vows to fight for the right to distribute
free Bibles in Oklahoma schools:
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has sent a letter to public school superintendents across the state vowing to defend religious freedom amid “veiled legal threats” over the distribution of Bibles on campus.
“Few things are as sacred and as fundamental to Oklahomans as the constitutional rights of free speech and the free exercise of religion,” Pruitt wrote Tuesday. “It is a challenging time in our country for those who believe in religious liberty. Our religious freedoms are under constant attack from a variety of groups who seek to undermine our constitutional rights and threaten our founding principles.”
The statement comes after the
Freedom From Religion Foundation discovered that Jamison Fought, the son of an Oklahoma state senator, worked with Gideons International to distribute Bibles to at least 26 different schools during class periods. The Freedom From Religion Foundation isn't backing down either,
promising a legal challenge:
Dear Attorney General Pruitt:
I write this letter to in response to your April 14, 2015 letter to superintendents. The letter stated “that several school districts in Oklahoma have been threatened by outside groups seeking to limit religious freedoms.” You note that my organization, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote those districts with “threats” that “revolve around whether Oklahomans have the right to distribute religious literature in a school.” FFRF is concerned about this misleading if not irresponsible advice.
The Law
As you must be aware courts have held that the distribution of bibles to students at public schools during instructional time is prohibited. See Berger v. Rensselaer Central Sch. Corp., 982 F.2d 1160 (7th Cir. 1993) (held that classroom distribution of Gideon bibles to fifth-graders violated the First Amendment); see also Tudor v. Bd. of Educ. of Rutherford, 14 N.J. 31 (1953), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 816 (1954) (finding unconstitutional a school board resolution permitting the distribution of bibles by Gideons). Even when distribution of religious material to students in school is done passively—from a table or some other fixed location—courts have ruled that that distribution may be unconstitutional. See Roark v. South Iron R-1 Sch. Dist., 573 F.3d 556 (8th Cir. 2009).
So, there you have it. The Oklahoma Attorney General seems to be begging for a fight on a constitutional issue decided long ago. Given that Oklahoma public schools were recently ranked at
48th in the nation and a
teacher shortage approaching severe crisis levels (due to lack of funding and extremely low pay), you'd think they'd have better ways to spend state and school funding than fighting these types of lawsuits.