A federal judge ruled – again – that Poway Unified School District school officials did not violate the free speech rights of a student whom they pulled from class for wearing a T-shirt with an anti-gay slogan.

The decision, last Tuesday, by U.S. District Judge John Houston is the latest win for school officials in a long-running legal battle with students Tyler Chase Harper and his sister, Kelsie. Tyler Harper sued the Poway Unified School District in 2004 alleging his freedom of speech and religious rights were violated when he was pulled out of class earlier that year.

The self-described Christian wore a shirt during the school “Day of Silence,” which is intended to promote tolerance of gays and lesbians. The shirt said “I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned” on one side and “Homosexuality is Shameful, Romans 1:27” on the other.

Harper was removed from class, but not otherwise disciplined. His suit was aimed at a school district policy aimed at eliminating “hate behavior” that offended students in certain minority groups based on race, gender or sexual preference.

As the case proceeded, Tyler Harper graduated, but his sister who was still a student was substituted in his stead. Houston in 2006 declined to issue an injunction stopping the district from enforcing the policy, and later in 2007 threw out the case against the district.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Houston’s decision not to issue an injunction. But that ruling was highly controversial.

The appeals court said schools could ban speech judged demeaning to other students who had to be insulated from “psychological attacks that cause young people to question their self-worth and their rightful place in society.”

Critics said this opened a new area for schools to limit student speech. The U.S. Supreme Court later said that decision was moot on procedural grounds – Tyler Chase had graduated by then. Lawyers for the Harpers then asked Houston to reconsider his ruling throwing out the whole case.

Houston did so in the ruling Tuesday, but did not change his mind.

He wrote that a school “interest in protecting homosexual students from harassment is a legitimate pedagogical concern that allows a school to restrict speech expressing damaging statements about sexual orientation and limiting students to expressing their views in a positive manner.”

While the school district has won three previous rulings, lawyers for the students and free speech activists said Houston’s ruling has the potential of greatly expanding school officials’ power to censor student speech.

A lawyer for the district, however, said the ruling gives school administrators better guidance over what kinds of student expression they can control on campus.

The Associated Press contributed to this story