DALLAS—A school district has been dropped from a lawsuit challenging the daily moment of silence in Texas classrooms.

Shannon and David Croft’s 2006 lawsuit initially named Gov. Rick Perry and the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, where the couple’s three children still go in the suburbs of Dallas. They sued after they said an elementary teacher told one of their children to keep quiet because the minute is a “time for prayer.”

But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday dropped the district from the lawsuit.

A 2003 law allows children to “reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities” for one minute after the American and Texas pledges at the beginning of each school day.

In a brief filed Friday with the 5th Circuit, the state said the law is “clearly secular—to promote patriotism, thoughtful contemplation and nondiscrimination.” The state also said that allowing students to pray during the moment of silence protects religious freedom, which is a constitutional right.

W. Dean Cook, the Crofts’ attorney, on Monday called the state’s arguments a “smoke screen.” He is appealing on the Crofts’ behalf after a federal judge in January threw out a challenge to the state law as unconstitutional.

“No one knows how it would promote patriotism,” Cook said. “It’s just a way of trying to get prayer into public schools.”