Supreme Court Refuses Case, Essentially OKs Graduation Prayer



by Fred Jackson and Jody Brown

The U.S. Supreme Court says it will not hear a challenge to a lower court ruling that said student-led graduation messages are constitutional.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that clergy could not lead prayers at public school graduations. The following year, school officials in Jacksonville, Florida, adopted a new policy which permitted senior class members to choose the content of the student-led graduation messages. In 1998, a group of parents and students sued the district, claiming the school policy was nothing more than a pro-prayer policy in disguise.

Since then, the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has twice upheld the district's policy. And even in the wake of an order last year to review it in light of the Supreme Court decision to ban student-led prayers at high school football games, the appeals court still held it to be constitutional.

In an 8-4 vote, the majority said the key to the Florida policy is that students make the choice of what to hear at graduation, and prayer is not the only choice they can make. The Eleventh Circuit includes Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Florida-based Liberty Counsel says that the Dec. 10 ruling means that students in those three states now have the “green light” to pray at graduation.

Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, takes it even further. “The implication of today's ruling extends beyond the three southern states to the entire nation,” he says. “Students around the country may offer prayer or religious messages under a neutral policy that allows for both secular and religious speech.”

Staver's firm had intervened on behalf of students who wanted a give a message which would include a religious message or prayer. He defended the graduation policy on the basis that it promoted free speech.

(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)

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