U.S. court rules that yoga is not religious

The constitutional cordon around public schools has repelled a variety of religious activity in recent history—student prayers at football games, bible readings in class, pictures of Jesus.

But does the separation of church and state also render off limits the sun salutations, the downward-facing dog and the lotus?

A California appeals court ruled last week that a school district in Encinitas could incorporate yoga into physical education, rejecting a challenge by parents who said the millennia-old discipline violates religious-freedom provisions in California’s constitution, which are broader than those in the U.S. Constitution.

The origins of yoga—typically taught in the U.S. as a series poses of varying degree of difficulty and breathing techniques—are disputed, though it is closely associated with Hinduism, which counts yoga as one of its component parts. Yoga practitioners in the U.S. numbered 24.3 million in 2013, a 37% climb in six years, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association