FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor has written an op-ed featured in Oklahoma’s Tulsa World newspaper detailing the threat to the state/church watchdog’s First Amendment rights posed by a lawsuit from State Superintendent Ryan Walters.

“For the first time in our nearly 50-year history, our nonprofit group, dedicated to the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government, has been taken to court by a public official — a move that challenges the very essence of our work,” Gaylor writes. “Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education are currently suing the Freedom From Religion Foundation in federal court because we contacted several Oklahoma public schools on behalf of parents over our constitutional concerns.”

Gaylor continues her examination of the dangerous legal threat by detailing how FFRF stays well within the law when receiving complaints:

This attack on free speech should alarm every Oklahoman who values the First Amendment. Walters has essentially filed a “SLAPP” (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) lawsuit, which is used to weaponize the legal system to punish and silence constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment. The Bill of Rights protects our right to speak up and criticize the government directly when we think it is violating the law, and it likewise protects our ability to advocate for change.

Notably, Walters’ lawsuit fails to identify any actual violation of law. That’s because FFRF has not violated the law — in fact, we’ve worked diligently to uphold the First Amendment itself.

FFRF concentrates on a particular section of the First Amendment: the establishment clause, which, as President Thomas Jefferson explained in a famous metaphor, builds “a wall of separation between Church and State.” But we could not accomplish our advocacy on behalf of our 42,000 members nationwide (including hundreds in Oklahoma) and those in the public who rely on our assistance without the other essential rights embodied in the First Amendment. Beyond the establishment and free exercise clauses, the First Amendment promises freedom of speech and of the press and the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances.

When parents or other members of the public contact our state/church watchdog over entanglements of religion and government, FFRF reviews the complaint, and if we find it likely that a First Amendment violation has taken place, FFRF contacts public officials to remedy it or seek more information.

Many Oklahoma parents have contacted FFRF over such concerns since Walters became state superintendent. Since individuals encountering promotions of religion by a government official are fearful of reprisal, particularly if the violation involves their vulnerable children in a public school setting, FFRF steps in to defend their rights and our views. Our attorneys often remind officials that our nation was founded on a secular Constitution and that honoring true religious liberty requires that the government and its public schools may not take sides over religion.

The piece concludes with a final rebuke of the lawsuit, warning of its true dangers: “FFRF’s defense against Superintendent Walters’ frivolous lawsuit is crucial for the protection of the free speech rights of all organizations, including organizations with which Walters agrees. Walters is attempting to set a dangerous precedent — that government officials have the right to legally muzzle advocacy critical of their policies. This the First Amendment does not tolerate. Rather, it protects the rights of all people to petition the government for a redress of grievances and to hold public officials accountable.”

You can read the full op-ed here. 

This column is part of FFRF’s initiative, this time through its legislative arm, to engage with pertinent national and state issues and spread the messages of freethought and nontheism to a broader audience.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 42,000 members nationwide, including hundreds of members in Oklahoma. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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