Federal appeals court rules teacher canâ€™t be sued for bashing Christianity | The Raw Story A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a California teacher could not be sued for criticizing Christianity and Creationism during a college-level European history course. "This was a really important ruling for academic freedom," University of California constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, who took on the case pro bono, told The Orange County Register. "There has never been a precedent set for something like this before. Teachers should be able to criticize religion just like they can criticize government, business and similar groups without the fear of being sued." A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a lower court's decision, which held that teacher James Corbett violated a studentâ€™s First Amendment rights by making comments during class that were hostile to religion in general, and to Christianity in particular. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that Corbett could not have known he was violating a constitutional right, noting there were no prior cases holding that a teacher violated the First Amendment by criticizing religion during class.