In a letter to the Kountze superintendent, (the Texas Attorney General) characterized the move from the Freedom from Religion Foundation as “menacing and misleading” and said the “organization has a long history of attempting to bully school districts into adopting restrictive religious speech policies that go well beyond what is required by the United States Constitution.”

A Texas public high school cheerleading squad will head to court this week to find out if it can hoist banners inscribed with biblical verses during football games, the latest case to test the sometimes fine line between the separation of church and state and freedom of speech.

The Kountze, Texas, schools superintendent banned the signs two weeks ago after he was contacted by the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., which said it had received a citizen complaint.

A state district court judge in Hardin County issued a temporary restraining order lifting the ban after the Liberty Institute, a Plano, Texas, group promoting religious freedom, offered to represent the cheerleaders and asked the court to issue a permanent injunction. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Kountze, a town of 2,100 about 85 miles northeast of Houston.

The 18 varsity cheerleaders at Kountze High School displayed the paper banners at three games before Kevin Weldon, superintendent of the Kountze Independent School District, stopped the practice.

One banner read: “But thanks be to God, which gives us Victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 15:57.” Another, from the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians in the New Testament, read, “I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.”

The Kountze Lions football team, which is undefeated through four games this season, would crash through the banners as it took the field.

Beth Richardson, the cheerleading coach, who works as a counselor at Kountze Middle School, said the girls got the idea for the banners from the social media site Pinterest, where they saw similar signs created by students at Georgia’s Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in 2009. The Georgia school’s district banned the banners following complaints.

In Kountze, a local branch of Citizens Bank recently put up a banner that says: “Citizens Bank Supports Our Kids.” The mother of a football player started a Facebook page called “Support Kountze Kids Faith.” It has 44,800 members. Another Web site is selling T-shirts to help defray court costs.

The legal issue is expected to revolve on whether the banners are seen as endorsed by the school or representing only the cheerleaders’ personal beliefs.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on online.wsj.com – however, the original URL is no longer available.]