A Texas school district policy permitting a student to lead a prayer before football games was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court June 19.
“The policy is invalid on its face because it … unquestionably has the purpose and creates the perception of encouraging the delivery of prayer at a series of important school events,” the court ruled in a 6 – 3 decision.
The case involved a policy of the Santa Fe Independent School District of Galveston County, Texas, which was invalidated by the Fifth District court of Appeals. Two families, one Mormon and another Catholic, sued the district, arguing the policy violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibiting governmental establishment of religion.
The policy called for high school students to vote on whether a student would deliver a “message” or “invocation” at varsity football games “to solemnize the event.”
If the students voted for such a start of the games, the policy called for them to choose in a separate election which student would deliver the invocation or message.
The high court, guided by the principles of its 1992 decision prohibiting school-invited clergy from leading prayers at graduations, determined the football-game invocations should not be considered “private speech.”
“These invocations are authorized by a government policy and take place on government property at government-sponsored school-related events,” the court majority said in an opinion written by Justice John Paul Stevens.
The court also said the Establishment Clause, which affirms religious liberty, does not prohibit all religious activity within public schools.
“Thus, nothing in the Constitution as interpreted by this Court prohibits any public school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during, or after the school day,” the ruling said.
“But the religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the State affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer,” the ruling added.
In his dissent, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist argued the student, not the government-controlled school, would determine the speech permitted by the policy.
“The Court distorts existing precedent to conclude that the school district’s student-message program is invalid on its face under the Establishment Clause,” wrote Rehnquist. He said the tone of the opinion “bristles with hostility to all thigns religious in public life.” (RNS)
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