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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Student Prayer Again an Issue for High Court
Los Angeles Times 6Mar00 N1
By David G. Savage: Times Staff Writer
SANTA FE, TEXAS -- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments
later this month in the case of a Mormon family and a Catholic
family, who sued the Santa Fe Texas School Board over intolerance by
the majority Baptist population against their religions. The case has
focused on the school board's permitting student-led prayers at
school events, including school assemblies and the graduation
ceremony to football games.
The issue has been covered many times before by Mormon-News [see
http://www.mormonstoday.com/000130/N1SchoolPrayer01.shtml
for the most recent article.], but this Los Angeles Times article
makes the issues clearer. Attorneys for the ACLU, who are representing the
Mormon and the Catholic families, say that allowing prayer at school
sponsored events violates the Constitution's first amendment prohibition
against the establishment of religion, and the Supreme Court has
agreed in previous decisions.
But the attorneys for the Santa Fe Independent School Board,
representing the feelings of the majority Southern Baptist
population, say that their changes to how the decision is made make
the prayers voluntary, student-led events, protected by the first
amendment's free speech clause. The arguments turn the first
amendment against itself.
When a federal judge pressed the district for its promotion of
religion in schools, its board voted to have the students decide. The
students voted nearly unanimously to hold prayers at football games
and graduations, leading to the current arguments before the Supreme
Court. In the brief that the school district filed, it says that its
policy represents a "neutral policy" that "neither
favors nor disfavors religion."
The school district says it is simply giving students a public
platform to use as they wish, "It's free speech. We can't
inhibit what they want to say," says school board president John Couch
Jr. The school board has received support from conservative politicians,
including Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush, who has
filed a brief as governor of Texas.
But Galveston lawyer Anthony P. Griffin says its a sham, noting that
the board wouldn't allow students to use that platform to critcize
the school board or mock religion. University of Texas law professor
Douglas Laycock, an expert on religion and the law, also finds the
logic troubling, "The core of the 1st Amendment is that we don't
vote on religion in this country and allow the majority to use the
instruments of government to spread the faith."
The history of the case shows how very religious people from minority
religions were drawn into a major battle over school prayer. The
families originally felt left out when school activities seemed to
promote the dominant Southern Baptist religion. The Mormon family was
upset when their daughter's junior high school teacher passed out
fliers for a Baptist revival. When the girl asked a question about
the revival, the teacher asked her what her religion was. On learning
that the girl was Mormon, she said that Mormonism was a
"non-Christian cult."
After the parents received promises from the school board for change
that failed to happen, they took their complaints to the ACLU, which
sued the school district in 1995 on behalf of the Mormon and Catholic
parents. U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent then ordered the district to
adopt new policies prohibiting prayer and religious instruction in
class. He allowed students to give a "brief invocation" at
graduation and football games, as long as it was "nonsectarian" and
"non-proselytizing."
When the school board appealed to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of
Appeals in New Orleans, it ruled 2-1 that the school can't allow
students "to read overtly Christian prayers from the stage at
graduation ceremonies." It also said there is no need for prayer
and invocation at football games. The district is asking the Supreme
Court to reverse the rulings, allowing students to give a religious
message from the podium. But the Court then restricted the question,
saying it would decide, "whether [the school board's] policy
permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games
violates the Establishment Clause."
Oral arguments in the case, known as Santa Fe Independent School
District vs. Doe, 99-62, will be heard March 29th. Experts believe
that the case will be a close one.
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