HB2312 and “Patriotic Access” in Public Schools Federal Incorporation, Equal Access, and Constitutional Tensions

Posted on by Dianne Post, Legal Director Secular AZ and Sagarika Nandi, Secular AZ Legal Intern
Arizona’s HB2312, signed by the Governor on 3/12/2026, is built on a federal law framework called Title 36 of the United States Code. This law lists certain “patriotic and national organizations” that Congress has officially recognized for their civic and educational role. These include groups like the Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, National FFA Organization, National 4-H Council, YMCA, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, and the American Red Cross.

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PUSD Board Shakeup?!

Posted on by Jeanne Casteen
Well, well, well, Secular FAM! I’m not usually one to celebrate on Cinco de Mayo since it’s a very manufactured excuse for (mostly white) people to drink tequila, but this Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, I may just need to celebrate with a giant margarita! Why, you ask?
There is a special meeting happening in Peoria (PUSD) tonight that will decide if PUSD governing board President Heather Rooks will lose her leadership role that she just secured a few short months ago. 

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When Religion Meets Public School

Posted on by Chloe Love
What does it mean for public schools, and public institutions generally, to remain “neutral” on religion? That question is at the heart of two important legal battles currently shaping the boundaries of secular law. Stinson v. Fayetteville School District (2025)and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond (2025), while arising in different states and contexts, both explore a core tension testing how far the government can go in engaging with religion before it crosses the line.

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Department of Education Releases New Religious Guidance for Public Schools

Posted on by Chloe Love
On February 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education released updated Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer and Religious Expression in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, replacing prior 2023 guidance.
The guidance explains how federal law and Supreme Court precedent apply to prayer and religious activity in public schools, and it carries significant consequences because federal education funding depends on compliance. At the same time, Arizona lawmakers are considering multiple bills involving school board prayer, released-time religious instruction, and other religion-related policies that raise constitutional questions.

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Amelia Craig Cramer: Criminal Prosecutions and the Rule of Law In Arizona

Join us on April 10 at noon for special guest Amelia Craig Cramer for a discussion of the state of the rule of law and criminal prosecutions in Arizona.

Click here to watch this virtual presentation. 

Amelia Craig Cramer is past President of the State Bar of Arizona and retired Chief Deputy Pima County Attorney. Following her retirement, Ms. Cramer served on the Arizona Supreme Court’s Task Force on Ethics for Government Lawyers and on the APAAC Public Law Practice Work Group.

Before joining the Pima County Attorney’s Office, during the first half of her legal career, Ms. Cramer was a civil litigator at large, private law firms:  Baker & Hostetler in Washington D.C.; Heller, Ehrman in San Francisco, and Brown & Bain in Tucson. Additionally, she was a leader of two nonprofit legal organizations dedicated to LGBT civil rights: managing attorney of the western regional office of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles; and executive director of GLBT Advocates and Defenders in Boston.

Also, Ms. Cramer taught law briefly as an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley’s School of Law and as a guest lecturer at other law schools. Following her retirement, Ms. Cramer volunteered for four years with the NAACP, serving as its Arizona State lobbyist and vice president and criminal justice committee chair of its Tucson Branch. Ms. Cramer is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Stanford Law School.

 

AZ Legislative Update

Join us on February 20 at noon (MST) for a legislative update with Secular AZ’s Jeanne Casteen and Lookout’s Joe Washington.

Click here to register for this virtual presentation.

More than 4k bills (a new record) have been introduced in the Arizona State Legislature this session. Many are Christian nationalist bills that violate the separation of church and state. Joe Washington and Jeanne Casteen discuss the worst of the worst/

John Washington is a staff writer for Lookout News. He is a longtime investigative and immigration reporter, and the author of the forthcoming How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention, which will be published by Haymarket this summer. Find him at @jwashing.bsky.social and https://johnwashington.substack.com/

 

SOSAZ: Protect Education Accountability NOW Act

Join us on February 27 at noon (MST) for special guest SOSAZ for a discussion of the Protect Education Accountability Now Act. Get involved and volunteer to help here. 

Click here to register for this virtual presentation. 

This year Arizona’s ESA voucher program is on track to spend more than $1,000,000,000 in your taxpayer dollars — with no accountability or transparency.

We can protect students and stop fraud by passing the Protect Education, Accountability Now! Act.

Learn more about the Protect Education Accountability Now Act.

 

Jennifer Berkshire: The Education Wars

Join us on February 13 at noon (MST) as special guest Jennifer Berkshire discusses her book The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual. 

Her new book outlines the core issues driving the education wars, offering essential information about issues, actors, and potential outcomes, and laying out what is at stake for parents, teachers, and students.

Click here to watch this virtual presentation.

Jennifer Berkshire writes about education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the Washington Post, and other publications. The creator and co-host of the education policy podcast “Have You Heard” she teaches aspiring podcasters in the journalism program at Boston College and the Labor Studies program at UMass Amherst. Berkshire discovered her passion for storytelling while covering a series of bitter labor battles that wracked her native Midwest in the early 1990’s. Additionally, she’s the author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School (New Press, 2020). More here.