Culture Class Including Introduction to Islam Was Constitutional

A New Jersey school district didn’t violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause by teaching a geography course that contained sections on Islam, the Third Circuit said Monday.

The curriculum taught by the School District of the Chathams and its board of education didn’t show any of the hallmarks of religious establishment, the opinion by Judge Thomas M. Hardiman said, relying on the US Supreme Court’s holding in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

Libby Hilsenrath sued the district after her son, C.H., who was a seventh grader at the Chatham Middle School during the 2016-2017 school year, was required to ...