The Jonesboro, Arkansas football team remembered their deceased teammate, Mark Owens, and equipment manager, Barry Weyer, in the form of a small cross decal placed on the back of their helmets.
As a result of this perfectly reasonable expression of grief, the Red Wolves heard from an Arkansas attorney and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group of atheist activists.
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The Jonesboro attorney, Louis Nisenbaum, saw the memorial cross as a constitutional infringement and sent a letter to the university pushing for the removal of the cross.
Unfortunately, university attorney Lucinda McDaniel agreed that the crosses could be considered a government endorsement of religion and conceded to pressure for the memorial decals removal.
A member of the team, however, was not cowed into compromising his principles. He took action and requested aid from the Liberty Institute, a law firm specializing in religious liberty issues.
"ASU's actions in defacing the students' memorial stickers to remove their religious viewpoint is illegal viewpoint discrimination against the students' free speech," said Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute.
Because of the student's reaction, the Liberty institute was able to convince the university to reverse it's decision and keep the cross on the team's helmets.
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honorable stance.
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