FFLC Transfers Homeschool Sports Case to State Court

Today, the Founding Freedoms Law Center moved our lawsuit to state court to allow our client, 9th grade homeschooler Samuel Palmer, to be able to compete in track and cross-country with his local high school team.

Read the filed Complaint here.

Recently, we filed this case in federal court and immediately asked the judge for a preliminary injunction to allow Samuel to begin running now while the litigation is pending, so he doesn’t lose out on potentially years of eligibility. The judge denied this request only regarding our U.S. Constitution “Equal Protection” claim, given the low bar for the government to prevail on such a claim, especially in the early stage of litigation, and given that preliminary injunctive relief is both “discretionary” and “extraordinary.”

Somewhat encouragingly though, about our two religion claims (Virginia’s Bill of Rights, and the VA Religious Freedom Restoration Act), the federal judge acknowledged that these provisions “provide far broader protections for religious liberty than their federal counterparts.”  However, given the robust and unique features of Virginia’s religious liberty protections, the judge concluded that the state court system was better suited to adjudicate those claims, so she declined to address them further, leaving Plaintiffs to move their claims to state court instead.

So, that’s what we did today. We moved this litigation to state court relying only on state-law religion claims, and are asking the Roanoke Circuit Court for a preliminary injunction based on these claims. The bottom line is: Samuel shouldn't be excluded from an otherwise available government benefit simply because his parents choose to educate him at home for religious reasons. Our immediate goal is to get Samuel running cross country with his peers when the season begins in August. Ultimately, we want to get a permanent injunction that allows Samuel to compete throughout his high school years. The Palmers also hope their case will open the door for other homeschool students to play sports for their local high school teams.

Please be in prayer for our legal team, the Palmers, and the state court judge in the coming days. We are optimistic about our legal arguments, but there are no guarantees in court, so your prayers go a long way.