Invoke the avoidance canon! There's no religious freedom issue here; but still, I wondered, for Free Speech purposes, what the state association's reason might be for decreeing that no writing could appear on headbands. I assumed there would be a general "no writing on uniforms" rule, for purposes of aesthetic uniformity and/or preventing distractions at meets. Far as I can tell, however, it turns out that there are no rules about headbands at all, let alone a rule about writing on headbands; nor could I find any rule generally ruling out writing on anything worn by the competitors. (There are rules prohibiting "hair beads," requiring that "any visible shirt worn under the track jersey, and other visible apparel worn under the shorts, must be unadorned and of a single (same) color," and prohibiting "clothing items with multiple logos"--but those don't appear to apply here.) See:
https://www.ghsa.net/sites/default/files/documents/Constitution/Constitution2015-16Complete.pdf On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 1:52 PM, Volokh, Eugene <vol...@law.ucla.edu> wrote: > Any thoughts on this story? A variant of this issue – though as to > nonreligious speech – has also come up at times in other places, see, e.g., > https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/01/05/high-school-teams-allowed-to-practice-in-slogan-bearing-shirts-i-cant-breathe/ > . I assume the GHSA would be a state actor, under *Brentwood Academy*, > https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2890003226740495113 . > Georgia doesn’t have a state RFRA, and Georgia courts haven’t considered > whether the state constitution’s religious freedom clause should be > interpreted to follow *Sherbert* / *Yoder* or instead to follow *Smith*. > > > > Eugene > > > > > > > http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/12/455766673/high-school-runner-disqualified-after-3rd-place-finish-for-headband-with-writing > > > > A high school runner was disqualified after finishing third in the Georgia > cross-country AAAAA state championship race for wearing a headband with > writing on it. > > John Green, a senior at West Forsyth High School, ran the race wearing a > white headband with a Bible verse written on it. After the race, he was > disqualified for a uniform violation. Though the school appealed the > disqualification, the Georgia High School Association has said the decision > will stand. > > Now a discussion is taking place about the fairness of the rule and its > enforcement, unnecessary bureaucracy, and even religious freedom. > > ... > > > > The GHSA released a statement disputing the series of events > <http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/47404814-story> and saying the decision > to disqualify Green was a matter of uniform code only. > > "First, let's be completely clear that this disqualification had nothing to > do with what was written on the athlete's headband. The fact that it was of > a religious nature did not enter into the decision whatsoever. > > "Also, despite published reports to the contrary, the athlete and his > coach were informed before the start of the race that the headband in > question was illegal and could not be worn during the race. > > "After being informed that the headband was illegal, the athlete removed > the headband and the meet referee assumed he would run the race without it. > However, at some point after that, the coach and the athlete made the > decision to ignore the warning and the headband was put back on. Since the > athlete then ran the race with apparel that had already been ruled illegal, > there was no choice but to issue a disqualification." > > It also included a quote from the referee who disqualified him: > > "I was called to the start line by the clerk concerning the headband. It > was a white headband with large black letters written on it. The coach said > he could turn it inside-out and make it legal. He did so, and the writing > was still very visible. The rule said the item had to be unadorned except > for a logo, and this clearly was not the case. I told the coach and the > athlete that he could not wear the headband during the competition. The > athlete took it off — neither the coach nor athlete were happy — and I > left. When I got back to the finish area, I noticed the athlete had a white > headband on. So, when I saw him come down the finish hill, I went inside > the finish corral to watch him finish, and he had the same headband on. I > told the timer to DQ him, I paged the coach, and told the coach of the > disqualification." > > > > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as > private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are > posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or > wrongly) forward the messages to others. >
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