A Christian high school student was told he would be violating the US constitution if he mentioned his faith in his graduation speech. Officials from Brawley Union School District in California told Brooks Hamby, 18, that “reference to religious content” was inappropriate, and opposed “government case law”. But Hamby said he did not want to compromise his values by removing all references to God or Jesus. Three drafts of his speech were rejected by officials, and he had received no reply about his fourth version by the time he delivered it. Despite the district telling him that the sound would be cut off if he talked about religion, Hamby quoted from the Gospel of Matthew and mentioned God during his graduation speech. A lawyer for Liberty Institute, an American religious liberty organisation, confirmed that Hamby was well within his legal rights to deliver a speech containing references to God.