WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that mealtime prayers at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) are unconstitutional, drawing praise and criticism from opposing sides of the church-state debate.
Virginia’s attorney general had appealed the case after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2003 that the suppertime prayers violated the First Amendment. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the VMI case at the appeals level, cheered the high court’s announcement.
“The Constitution does not allow public schools to pressure students to pray, and this action is a reaffirmation of that important principle,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based watchdog group, in a statement.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said, “It is disappointing to see the court let stand a decision that bars voluntary prayer at dinner — a respected and time-honored tradition at a military institution that has played a vital role in training military leaders for more than 160 years.”
After a three-judge panel of the appeals court made its original ruling last April, a divided full court upheld that decision in August.
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