CatholicVote Education Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on April 1, urging the court to reverse a ruling that upheld a school district’s decision to reassign a longtime public school teacher for displaying a crucifix on her classroom desk.
The brief supports Marisol Arroyo-Castro, a devout Catholic who taught seventh-grade social studies at DiLoreto Elementary & Middle School in New Britain, Connecticut. As Zeale News reported in February 2025, Castro was suspended without pay and threatened with termination after she refused to remove the 12-inch crucifix she had kept on her desk for roughly a decade. She said at the time that the crucifix was a reminder to pray throughout the day and that it helped her teach her students calmly.
The school district argued the crucifix was government speech and ordered its removal, citing potential violations of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government endorsement of religion. Castro — who had served as a teacher for some 30 years — was eventually reassigned to a non-teaching administrative role.
CatholicVote Education Fund argued in its brief that the district court misapplied Supreme Court precedent from Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), which held that public employees retain First Amendment protections for private religious expression in the workplace. According to the brief, the lower court adopted an overly broad definition of “government speech” and failed to properly weigh Castro’s rights against speculative concerns about the Establishment Clause.
“The crucifix is not a tool of coercion, nor was it used as one in this case,” Vice President of CatholicVote Education Fund Josh Mercer said in the release. “Ms. Castro’s display of her faith harmed no one, yet the District Court’s decision sends the wrong message to public employees and students alike — namely, that religion has no place in public life. This is a dangerous precedent undermining the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court needs to intervene.”
The brief also emphasized long-standing Supreme Court holdings that public employees retain constitutional protections at work and that religious expression should receive the same treatment as other forms of private speech. It called on the 2nd Circuit to reverse the district court ruling and reaffirm those principles.
“Respect for religious expression is indispensable to life in a free and diverse republic,” Mercer added. “Public schools should model inclusivity and tolerance, not censorship and suppression. This case is about protecting the rights of public servants to express their faith without fear of reprisal.”