SEATTLE (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a school district violated a Bible club leader's rights by refusing to give her club the same status and benefits granted to other school groups.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's dismissal of a complaint filed four years ago by Tausha Prince, then a sophomore at Spanaway Lake High School, about 35 miles south of Seattle.
Prince argued the Bethel School District violated her First Amendment rights of speech and religion, as well as a 1984 law forbidding public schools that take federal money from excluding religious or political extracurricular clubs if they allow others.
"I'm thrilled," Prince, 19, said Monday. "It took a long time, but it was worth the wait."
The district had argued that granting a religious group the same status as secular groups would violate the constitutional separation of church and state. A spokesman said the district was considering an appeal.
Prince, now a junior in college, asked the district for permission to form the club in 1997, but officials said that because it was a religious group, it could not be set up as a regular student group.
That meant the club, among other restrictions, did not have access to student body money for activities.