On May 5, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a precedential opinion in Hilsenrath v. School District of the Chathams, et al., rejecting a constitutional challenge to a public school’s social studies curriculum that included instructional content about Islam. The plaintiff, a parent of a 7th-grade student, argued that the inclusion of videos and written materials about Islamic beliefs and practices in a middle school world cultures and geography class violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Plaintiff sought an injunction, a declaratory judgment, nominal damages, and attorney’s fees. 

In a decision authored by Judge Thomas Hardiman, U.S.C.J., (in which Judge Freeman joined and Judge Phipps concurred), the Third Circuit panel affirmed the District Court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of the school district. Relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Third Circuit applied a historical approach rather than the Lemon test, focusing on whether the government action resembled a historical practice and understandings of establishing religion. Under that standard, the Third Circuit concluded that the curriculum did not cross constitutional boundaries because none of the religious content about Islam resembled the “hallmarks associated with religious establishment” as it was presented in an academic rather than a devotional context, formed only part of a single unit as part of a broader study of world cultures and religions, was presented from the perspective of a non-believer, and did not amount to religious coercion or proselytization.

The Third Circuit emphasized that federal courts are not in the business of micromanaging educational content dictated by local governmental policy, so long as elected school board members remain within constitutional limits. The ruling clarifies that public schools may include instruction about religion as part of a secular educational program without running afoul of the First Amendment, so long as it does not “force a student to engage in formal religious exercise.”

This decision provides important guidance for school districts navigating how to present religious topics in social studies and other classes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedential ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District by reaffirming their ability to include comparative, social, historical and/or cultural instruction on the religious tenets of particular faiths in a school curriculum, without violating the Establishment Clause.

Ruby Kumar-Thompson, a Partner of the Firm, briefed and argued the case for Defendant both in the United States District Court and in the Third Circuit.