Tangipahoa won’t appeal bible ruling

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida Parishes bureau
• Published: Jun 2, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:15 p.m.

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The Tangipahoa Parish School Board has agreed that the distribution of Gideon Bibles at Loranger Middle School last year violated the U.S. Constitution.

That means the board won’t appeal a judge’s ruling that handing out the bibles violated the First Amendment prohibition on government endorsing religion,  an attorney for the plaintiffs said today.

In a “consent judgment” agreed to by both sides, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered school officials “to refrain from allowing, participating in and/or encouraging the distribution of Bibles, or other religious materials, to elementary school children within the jurisdiction of the Tangipahoa Parish School System, on school property.”

Only hours after Barbier found in favor of the plaintiffs on April 22, the board voted to appeal the decision to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, the consent judgment ends the possibility of appeal, said Ron Wilson, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

The civil rights group represented a parent and a Loranger Middle student identified only as “John Roe” and his daughter, “Jane Roe,” in the lawsuit, which was filed in May 2007.

School Board attorney Chris Moody wasn’t immediately available for comment late this morning.