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"Did the opponents of the gathering cite federal law? If not, then they didn't violate the first amendment of the federal constitution."

No they did not. They cited the popular pseudo-law of 'social stigmatization.' Because 85 percent of the parents in the school district allowed their children to participate in free time religious activities the other parents felt their children were being 'stigmatized' because they didn't allow them to participate. I'm not sure I understand your argument. If the constitution gives us a right I don't believe it is necessary to site a non-existent federal law to justify its contradiction. The constitution supersedes federal law as it is the foundation of our law. There can be no federal law that contradicts the constitution in my simple understanding of how we are to be governed unless a lawyer can explain it to me. Are you a lawyer?

Not a lawyer here. Just trying to understand.

As I currently understand, the first amendment only refers to the federal government. It doesn't protect the civil liberties of Americans from the encroachments of individual states.

For example, several states had established state religions (Christian). That didn't contradict the first amendment, which only prohibited the federal government from establishing a religion.