SAN DIEGO, June 26 (UPI) -- Lengthy closing arguments in a San Diego trial challenging a public elementary school yoga program will delay a ruling in the case, the judge said.
The case, testing whether yoga is a secular exercise of a form of Hindu-based religion, is believed to be the first of its kind, U-T San Diego reported Wednesday.
San Diego Superior Court Judge John Meyer said a ruling would come Thursday at the earliest.
Attorney Dean Broyles, who represents parents in the Encinitas, Calif., Union School District who oppose a three-year, $533,000 grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation to include yoga in the physical education curriculum, spent five hours Tuesday summarizing their case, calling the program "a horrible precedent for other religious organizations to buy influence."
He added the foundation has "transparently religious goals," noting the school program is based on Ashtanga yoga, which he described as the most religious form of yoga.
Defense attorneys have said the yoga exercises are nothing more than stretching and breathing, the newspaper said.
Judge Meyer, who told the court in April he is a practitioner of yoga, questioned whether Broyles' remarks were based on testimony in the case, saying, "There's not one witness [from the school district] who said that."
