Article originally publsihed May 9, 2025 on dailyrecord.com

Link to Original Article by William Westhoven

A lawsuit filed by a Chatham mother claiming the local schools were indoctrinating children into Islam through their curriculum could be headed to the United States Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in favor of the district.

The ruling by a three-judge panel in Philadelphia on Tuesday upheld earlier District Court rulings that began in 2018, when Libby Hilsenrath filed a lawsuit claiming Chatham schools were “promoting” Islam and used materials that “call to the children” to convert.

“We express no opinion about the propriety of the curriculum at issue, except to hold that it does not bear any of the hallmarks of religious establishment. For that reason, we will affirm the District Court’s judgment,” Judge Kevin McNulty wrote.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, who argued the case, said he will file an en banc request for all Third Circuit judges to review the case. Should they deny that request or rule against them once again, he will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take on the case.

“If this is the way it’s going to be and we’re going to create a battleground in the public school system, which our founding fathers wanted to avoid, it’s a very important public interest issue that means a lot for the future of our country,” Thompson said in an interview with the Daily Record and USA Today Network.

The Michigan-based nonprofit center’s mission statement “is to preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage; defend the religious freedom of Christians; Restore time-honored moral and family values; protect the sanctity of human life; promote a strong national defense and a free and sovereign United States of America.”  

Hilsenrath particularly objected to a class assignment to view what she described as a “conversion video” posted on YouTube that she claims is “an explicit and direct call to the children for conversion to the religion of Islam.”

Including that video in a mandatory class that her son was required to take for graduation, she claimed, was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

“This conversion video, replete with biased, chastising statements encouraging the students at Chatham Middle School, including (her son), to follow the Quran and become Muslim, concluded with a direct and explicit call for the children to convert to Islam,” Hilsenrath alleged in the original complaint. The video, the complaint reads, ended with: “May God help us all find the true faith, Islam. Amen.” 

Richardson said that the last line “is saying Islam is the true faith and all other religions are wrong.”

“Our interpretation is this is evangelization using taxpayers’ money in a course that was mandated by the school district,” he said. “We felt that violated the Establishment Clause.”

The Third Circuit disagreed.

“Even apart from instructional materials, the record contains no evidence that [the teacher] is a Muslim or that she ever tried to convert her students to Islam,” the Third Circuit wrote in its decision. “So assuming the Establishment Clause required the [school] board to treat religions equally, the record shows that it satisfied that requirement here.”

Richardson said he hopes to convince the Third Circuit or the U. S. Supreme Court to review the case in the aftermath of the landmark Kennedy v. Bremerton School District case in 2022, in which the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 majority, upheld the right of a public school football coach to offer a prayer at the 50-yard line after a game.

“It’s important that not only our client, but the entire judicial system, start getting an idea of what the Supreme Court meant in the Kennedy case when they said they were going to review all Establishment Clause cases in light of the historical practices of our Colonial fathers,” Richardson said. “We’d like to see them put a little meat on the bone.”

Attorney Ruby Kumar-Thompson, who has represented the Chatham district in this case since the beginning, said “the district is thrilled” with the latest decision and is prepared to continue the case should it go on.

She also disputed Richardson’s strategy, saying, “I don’t believe their previous arguments addressed the standard that Kennedy set forth in that decision.”

The lawsuit originally sought injunctive and declaratory relief in addition to legal fees and nominal expenses, but given that Hilsenrath’s son is no longer in the class, the case is now more about principle than action.

Richardson said they are seeking fairness for all religions and that “a lot of Muslim groups support what we are doing.”

“Let’s turn it around and you are a Muslim,” he said. “Would you want your child to be proselytized into the Christian faith in school? This is very important to the future of public school religious programs, and most of all to Libby Hilsenrath. She has been a lone hero fighting this. She is a Christian and is fighting because she wants to make sure Christians are getting a fair shake in the school system.”