The Economist: Democracy in America!!

Consider the cheerleaders. The Kountze Lions, a high-school football team from east Texas, are having a good season. Their all time win percentage is 38%. Thus far this year, they're five for seven season. Their all time win percentage is 38%. The problem is that the Lions have, perhaps, posted these gains after making illicit use of performance enhancing prayer. Since the start of the year the school's cheer-leading squad has been displaying banners painted with Bible verses. It's common at high school football games for the team to run onto the field by bursting through such banners like the Kool Aid man, but it's not common for the banners to carry religious messages, because public schools aren't supposed to promote religion. Last month, accordingly, the district's superintendent banned such banners, but on October 18th a district court ruled that the school can't enforce the ban for the time being. At a press conference in support of the cheerleaders last week Rick Perry, the governor, and Greg Abbott, the state's attorney general, were looking like Christmas, and I do mean Christmas, had come home early. America's constitution separates church and state, as indeed does the Texas version. But Texas's contemporary political leaders have notably declined to give the principle much respect. The controversy had given them a chance to stand up for Texas, high school football, cheerleaders, God, and the constitutionally enshrined right to free expression, all in one go, against the interference of, as Mr Abbott put it, in an incredulous tone, "an atheist group from Wisconsin". The speech rights of students are often debated, because if a student is in public school, as most American students are, a lot of their self expression happens under the auspices of a government entity.