Legal Features

Hernandez v. Northside Independent Sch. Dist.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in federal court to prohibit John Jay High School officials from essentially expelling sophomore Andrea Hernandez for the duration of the case as a result of her refusal to wear a school-mandated RFID tracking badge. The badges, part of the school’s “Student Locator Project,” include tiny Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) chips that produce a radio signal, enabling school officials to track students’ precise location on school property. For Hernandez, a Christian, the badges pose a significant religious freedom concern in addition to the obvious privacy issues. School officials offered to quietly remove the tracking chip from Andrea’s card if the sophomore would agree to wear the new badge without the embedded RFID chip so as to give the appearance of participation in the Student Locator Project. Andrea refused the offer, believing that to wear the “mark” of the program would still compromise her religious beliefs.

In coming to Andrea’s defense, Rutherford attorneys have alleged that the school’s attempts to penalize, discriminate and retaliate against Andrea violate her rights under Texas’ Religious Freedom Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Rutherford Institute’s motion for a preliminary injunction in Hernandez v. Northside Independent Sch. Dist. is available here.