Christian school officials have spent eight years challenging a policy that banned a prayer before the kickoff of the Florida state high school football championship.

Cambridge Christian School asked the Florida High School Athletic Association whether they could use the loudspeakers for a prayer ahead of the 2015 state championship game against University Christian School, which also had a tradition of praying before games. The association banned the teams from using the loudspeakers for prayer, contending that “this could be viewed as an endorsement of religion since the Christian schools would be praying on government property,” according to a case summary from legal advocacy group First Liberty Institute.

Attorneys representing Cambridge have spent nearly one decade challenging the policy and were recently able to present arguments before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. First Liberty Institute special counsel Jeremy Dys said in an interview with The Sentinel that the team imminently expects a ruling from the court in their favor.

“I think the Supreme Court has been saying repeatedly, and this was the argument we made to the Eleventh Circuit in June, that the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause are meant to be read as complementary and not at odds with one another,” Dys remarked. “For far too long the Establishment Clause has been used by government agencies and actors to suppress and punish religious liberty whenever it came into the public square.”

Dys told The Sentinel that religious activity in the public square is now “presumed to be constitutional,” indicating that “the dynamics have shifted greatly” and that the Florida High School Athletic Association was “far out of step” in banning the loudspeaker prayer.

“The same microphone that Cambridge wanted to use had been previously used not once, not twice, but three different times by Billy Graham,” Dys said. “No one would have thought this was the speech of the state or anything but the speech of Cambridge Christian School and their opponents, University Christian School. It is just ridiculous that it has taken us eight or nine years to get to the point where the First Amendment clearly says and protects the rights of religious schools to be able to be religious schools when they are in public.”