Boyd student continues appeal

By MIKE JAMES - The Independent

CINCINNATI April 29, 2008 11:32 pm

— A Boyd County High School senior has asked the full U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit his claim that the Boyd County Board of Education violated his constitutional rights in 2005.
Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund filed an appeal on behalf of Timothy Morrison, who claimed that his First Amendment rights were violated by a district policy that prohibited him from expressing his religious beliefs against homosexuality.
The case has zig-zagged through the court since it was originally filed; federal district court Judge David Bunning had ruled against Morrison but a three-judge appeals court panel had said the policy could have had a chilling effect and ordered Bunning to reconsider the ruling.
Then a second panel reversed that decision earlier this month, with one of the justices saying the case “trivializes” court business and that the case should end.
Morrison had sought only nominal damages of $1. Also, the school district had changed the policy.
“The panel made a big mistake,” said Kevin Theriot, an attorney for the ADF, a religious-rights legal organization. “It’s at odds with other rulings of the Sixth Circuit and other courts as well.”
The school district continues to maintain that the matter should be over, said Winter Huff, an attorney representing the board of education. “We respect that the case is about principles. I don’t mean to demean that at all,” she said. “But we’re talking about things that are not of any current import or effect on the Boyd County School District.”
The policy that launched Morrison’s case was part of anti-harassment training that was the product of an earlier lawsuit against the district by a group of students who wanted to form a gay-straight alliance at Boyd County High School.
Those students were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which now is siding with Morrison in his appeal.
“We agree that Timothy Morrison had his First Amendment rights violated,” said Sharon McGowan, an attorney for the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and AIDS Project. “Our kids had their First Amendment rights violated and they wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone else.
“We’re on the same side as them on this issue.”