Jaysea DeVoe leading a yoga class in Encinitas.

An Escondido lawyer trying to force the Encinitas Union School District to end its school yoga program because it has religious roots, squared off in a state appeals court Wednesday against district lawyers who say the program only promotes physical exercise not mystical or spiritual enlightenment.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal is expected to rule in the case by June 9, but in court Wednesday the panel of judges seemed skeptical that the program was somehow still tainted by religion.

Yoga has been a health and wellness activity in the Encinitas school district since 2012, when the Encinitas-based Sonima Foundation gave the district $2 million to add yoga to all physical education classes.

That same year, attorney Dean Broyles who runs the National Center for Law & Policy sued the district on behalf of several parents, saying the program violated the separation of church and state by endorsing Hindu religious beliefs promoted in Ashtanga yoga.

In 2013, a lower court sided with the district, finding that school program had been stripped of any religious overtones and could therefore remain. Broyles and his clients appealed.

In a hearing Wednesday, judges seemed impatient with Broyles contention that the yoga program had spiritual underpinnings.

Its void of religious, mystical or spiritual trappings, Judge Cynthia Aaron said. The judges interrupted Broyles several times during his nearly 30-minute oral argument to the court.

Broyles described the panel later as a hot bench that peppered him with lots of tough but legitimate questions.

They were very animated, Broyles observed.

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Lawyers battle in yoga case