Federal judge dismantles Ryan Walters' frivolous lawsuit against atheist group

Oklahoma’s top education official wasted taxpayer money on a Culture War stunt that collapsed under even minimal legal scrutiny

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A federal judge recently tossed out a bizarre lawsuit brought by Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters against the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The lawsuit was so completely frivolous, you have to wonder why Walters even thought it would be a good idea. If he thought he would get good headlines out of it, that plan has backfired.

Ryan Walters, about to say something thoughtless (screenshot via Facebook)

The situation dates back to 2018. That year, FFRF heard that the Putnam City High School football team in Oklahoma City had brought on a team chaplain to lead the kids in prayer. That religious leader openly stated that his goal was to “share the Gospel with them.” That’s obviously not legal at a public school, and FFRF said as much in a letter to the superintendent. They asked the district to investigate the matter and stop coaches from pushing religion on kids.

Within a few weeks, FFRF announced that the letter worked. The district investigated the situation, confirmed FFRF’s allegation, and assured them “athletic staff has been instructed that the practice of allowing access to students and engaging in prayer before any game would cease immediately.” Success!

Then, in 2024, FFRF wrote a letter to the superintendent of the Achille Public Schools (pronounced “ATCH-uh-lee”) about a new policy “allowing teachers to read Bible verses at the beginning of their classes.” In at least one case, a teacher had a student read the Bible verses to the class. This wasn’t secular. It had nothing to do with the lesson plan. It was just straight-up indoctrination.

It got even worse. The district apparently began the day with “mandatory student-led prayers” over the loudspeaker during morning announcements. While a moment of silence would have been legal, the district often had students saying it was time for a “moment of silence or prayer”… which was then followed by the student “praying over the intercom.”

This took place at both the elementary school and high school. FFRF added that students were unable to skip these prayers since they occurred “after the first period has already started.”

That also worked. By March, FFRF announced that the superintendent assured them that through “meeting with both building principals, I have made it clear that we want to make sure that no student is coerced into doing any religious activity.”

In both situations, FFRF didn’t sue the school districts. They just told them to stop doing something that was illegal. They sent warnings while explaining what the issues were. At no point did FFRF say students couldn’t pray on their own, only that school-sponsored prayers were illegal. They reminded the district that none of the Supreme Court’s recent pro-religion decisions negated that. And clearly both districts knew they crossed the line since they told FFRF they would put a stop to it.

But for whatever reason, Ryan Walters decided all of this had gone too far.

In April, Walters said in a video that he was suing the “radical atheists”—a phrase he used multiple times as if there are tiers of atheism—because they were supposedly harassing students and teachers for “freely expressing their religious beliefs.”

Today in Oklahoma, we're fighting back. I've got this lawsuit that I filed today against the Freedom From Religion Foundation. They're a group of radical atheists that continue to attack our students and teachers in the state of Oklahoma. Well, never again.

These radical atheists can find somewhere else to go because we're not gonna allow them to harass our students and teachers for freely expressing their religious beliefs.

This lawsuit will continue to ensure that in Oklahoma your rights will be protected, our teachers and students can absolutely pray if that's what they choose to do. So Freedom From Religion [sic], we will see you radical atheists in court.

What was he talking about? Who the hell knows. After all, FFRF has never gone after teachers or students for “freely expressing their religious beliefs”; they’ve only fought against people like Walters who have shoved their Christianity down everyone else’s throats.

But the lawsuit had to be about something, right?! If this wasn’t purely about retaliation or getting attention for himself, on what grounds was he suing FFRF?

According to the actual lawsuit, those letters warning the public school districts that they were violating the law… were violating the law.

That was seriously his whole argument.

He never explained why FFRF’s complaints were wrong; he merely insisted his job was to protect “individual religious freedom” and those warning letters—not even lawsuits, but warning letters—stifled the ability for students and teachers to practice their faith. And he claimed the courts had to stop FFRF’s “threatening and harassing behavior”… which was nothing more than reminding districts what the laws are.

The lawsuit was seriously that stupid. At one point, Walters wrote:

Supreme Court precedent has long-recognized the secular value of religious texts, including the Bible, in school settings, as well as the secular value of chaplains as mentors and counselors in government-run institutions.

Sure, the Bible can be studied in school in a secular way. But the key word there is “secular.” Reciting Bible verses for the sake of indoctrination, with no connection to what’s being taught, which is what was happening in that Oklahoma school district, was still not acceptable.

Sure, Christian chaplains can be useful in a secular way, but proselytizing to a football team, which is what was happening in that Oklahoma school district, was still forbidden.

In short, Walters was furious that FFRF dared to defend the law when his goal has always been to violate it or tear it down entirely.

The Oklahoma Department of Education’s attorney, Jacquelyne K. Phelps, said FFRF was interfering with Walters’ and OSDE’s “statutory duty to oversee Oklahoma’s public schools and their duty to implement curricular standards, investigate any complaints levied against an Oklahoma school, and advocate for its students and parents.”

You didn’t need to be a lawyer to understand how comical all this was. Instead of bothering to explain why religious proselytizing in public schools was legal—because they couldn’t—they were going after FFRF for warning the schools (on behalf of local complainants!) that what they were doing was against the law. Walters even said in his press release that FFRF was trying to “erase faith,” which had absolutely nothing to do with any of the letters they wrote.

Ryan Walters was lying because his Christianity never taught him how to be a decent human being.

A handful of new articles about this lawsuit failed to point out that Walters had no argument. He couldn’t prevent FFRF from telling districts they were breaking the law nor could he stop FFRF from suing those districts, if it came to that, on behalf of local parents willing to fight those cases. But they never had to sue because the warnings helped resolve the issues.

What Walters wanted is attention. And the headlines said that Walters was suing an atheist group, so I guess he took that as a victory. It helped him build up his credentials with Christian Nationalists. He also got a few one-liners in all those articles by saying absurd things like “Oklahoma will never be bullied by radical, out-of-state atheists who use intimidation and harassment against kids.” (Meanwhile, he was the one shoving his religion on non-Christian students across the state because he didn’t give a damn about their religious freedoms.)

Still, there was no legal justification for what he was doing. It was desperation in the form of a lawsuit.

This past May, FFRF asked the court to toss out Walters’ lawsuit. They said he had no legal standing to even file it, that the federal courts had no business stepping in since no federal laws had been violated, that the lawsuit was frivolous and targeted FFRF’s First Amendment rights, and that Walters wasn’t even making any legal claims (making a “victory” utterly meaningless). Any one of those things could have gotten this lawsuit dismissed. FFRF said all of those things were happening.

In response to that argument, Walters’ office offered up 20 pages of nonsense. They said they had legal standing because school districts often ask them for guidance on legal issues. They said the federal court needed to step in because FFRF was interfering with their duty to run the public school system. They said their lawsuit wasn’t frivolous because FFRF had “threatened and will continue to threaten the free exercise rights exercise rights of Oklahoma’s students and parents.” And they said they did have a legal claim because victory would stop FFRF’s “endless stream of cease-and-desist letters it routinely sends to Oklahoma public schools.”

Keep in mind FFRF never even filed lawsuits in the two districts I mentioned earlier. Walters’ office was flipping out this much over warning letters that spelled out why the schools were violating the law and giving them a chance to correct their behavior.

When the federal judge weighed all this, the decision became clear: Ryan Walters was full of shit.

In a brief 8-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John F. Heil III (a Trump appointee) tore apart everything Walters’ office said.

For example, was the State Department of Education actually “injured” by FFRF’s warning letters? Of course not, the judge said:

… How do Defendant’s letters interfere with Plaintiffs’ authority or ability to administer Oklahoma’s public schools? In what way are Plaintiffs precluded from administering Oklahoma’s public schools because of Defendant’s letters? What have Plaintiffs intended to do, but have been unable to, because of Defendant’s letters? The Complaint does not answer these questions. Plaintiffs have not alleged that they have suffered some actual or threatened injury. Plaintiffs’ generalized statement of injury is nothing more than conjecture.

The judge noted that answering questions from school districts about these kinds of warning letters was literally one of the jobs of the Oklahoma State Department of Education… so why the hell was the OSDE whining about it?!

In essence, Plaintiffs concede that addressing the types of letters it complains of in this lawsuit is part of Plaintiffs’ duties. Yet, Plaintiffs say that they are harmed because “[e]ach time a district receives a ceaseand-desist demand from [Defendant], OSDE must expend valuable time and resources to address it”… Both things cannot be true. Plaintiffs cannot be both performing their duties by addressing the letters and impeded from performing their duties by addressing the letters.

Then the judge noted that all of this whining involved TWO WARNING LETTERS sent nearly seven years apart. How on earth was that too much of a burden for the OSDE to deal with?!

… Plaintiffs only complain of two (2) letters sent by Defendant to two (2) Oklahoma public schools in the past seven (7) years.

While I’m sure it’s standard, it’s fun to imagine the sarcasm the judge had when he repeated each number in parentheses.

Were the two (2) letters so powerful that they chilled the school districts’ freedom of speech? Nope, said the judge:

… the Complaint does not allege that it has stopped executing its duties or ceased administration of Oklahoma’s public schools because of Defendant’s letters. Nor does the Complaint allege that the schools have ceased any policies or practices because of Defendant’s letters.

Ultimately, the judge said, there was no “injury,” which meant Walters had no legal standing, which meant there was nothing for the Court to even do, which meant the whole case needed to be tossed out.

The judge even wrote in a footnote that Walters was lying about FFRF’s letters having a “chilling effect” on his office’s work because Walters literally told the Court he “has actively sought to address the dismantling of faith and family values in public schools” by pushing bibles in schools. He also noted that if FFRF got its facts wrong in their complaint letters, the districts could easily have written back to explain the “misunderstanding… [or] simply take no action at all.”

It’s just a complete takedown of a bullshit lawsuit.

FFRF said in a statement that the “clear-eyed” ruling revealed “the absurdity of the unwarranted legal attack against FFRF.”

More broadly speaking, this isn’t just a courtroom embarrassment for Ryan Walters. It’s an indictment of his priorities and his contempt for the law. This was a calculated, taxpayer-funded publicity stunt aimed at stoking Christian Nationalist outrage and demonizing those who insist that public schools follow the Constitution. His case didn’t collapse because FFRF engaged in clever legal maneuvering. He lost because he never had a case to begin with. The judge’s dismantling of his claims exposes the hollow foundation of Walters’ crusade and the dangerous willingness of a public official to weaponize the legal system against those who dare to enforce church-state separation.

But this is what happens when you elect an education chief willing to abuse his office to score culture war points and waste public resources to fight a battle that was doomed from the start.

We’ll find out soon how much Walters’ office—or, in other words, the taxpayers—will have to pay FFRF in legal fees for wasting everyone’s time.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

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