Becket filed a federal lawsuit this month on behalf of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), challenging a New Jersey school district’s ban on outside volunteer mentors for all religious clubs while freely allowing them at every other student club. FCA is a religious ministry that supports student-athletes committed to living out their Christian faith on and off the playing field. In the Hopewell Valley school district, FCA clubs have met for years without incident, with FCA staff and volunteers attending as mentors, just like adult volunteers and mentors routinely attend events held by other clubs across the district.
But when an atheist advocacy group sent a complaint letter, the school district caved and announced a new policy barring outside individuals from attending any meetings of religious clubs. The district claimed the law required it, yet never identified which law supposedly did so, and continued to allow outside individuals at every other type of club. In Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. Board of Education of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District, FCA and two student-led FCA clubs at local schools are asking the court to end the district’s volunteer ban and restore equal treatment for religious clubs.
