CTA's 2nd Brief & Response to Plaintiff's 1st Brief - National Center ...

. The Primary Effect of Dr. Gorbett9s Statements Was
Secular
A reasonable and informed high school student in Dr. Corbett's class would
not understand the primary effect of Dr. Corbett's lectures and comments to be a
disapproval of religious belief or hostility to religion. Am. Family, 277 F.3d at
1122. In American Family, this court looked at the complete context of the
government actions being challenged, not simply the aspects that expressly
criticized religious right and that showed hostility to the religious view that
homosexuality is sinful or immoral. Id. The Court found that any hostility to
religion was secondary, and that a reasonable observer would have found the
primary effect of the city's action to be promoting gay rights. Similarly here, the
primary and secular effect of Dr. Corbett's lectures and comments is to prepare
students to be tested about the events and trends in European history, to
distinguish argument grounded in facts and logic from that grounded in
suppositions and unquestioned assumptions, and to relate that history to issues in
contemporary society. The District Court correctly determined (with the exception
of the Peloza remark) that all Dr. Corbett's statements had primarily secular
effects.
Case: 09-56689 07/26/2010 Page: 42 of 80 ID: 7418245 DktEntry: 45-1
relatively small portion of the overall education program. See Brown, 27 F: 3d. at
1384; Grove) 753 F.2d. at 1540; Fleischfresser) 15 F.3d at 689.