Justices Prohibit Prayer at Public School Rites : Religion: The state Supreme Court rules that benedictions at graduation violate the U.S. Constitution.
SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court, raising the constitutional barrier between government and religion, on Monday prohibited organized prayers at public high school graduation ceremonies.
In a far-reaching decision issued on the eve of the graduation season, the high court held 5 to 2 that such invocations and benedictions effectively “convey a message†of governmental endorsement of religion, violating the U.S. Constitution.
“Freedom of religion flourishes only when government observes strict adherence to the principle of separation of religion and state authority,†Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote in the plurality opinion. “Respect for the differing religious choices of the people of this country requires that government neither place its stamp of approval . . . nor appear to take a stand on any religious question.â€
The decision is likely to have broad impact. Prayer in public school classrooms has been banned under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling since 1962. But traditional invocations and benedictions at graduation ceremonies have endured as their legality remained unresolved. In California, an estimated three-fourths of the 1,000 school districts in the state include prayers or other religious messages at graduations.
The ruling reflected unusually wide division within the court on the emotionally and politically charged school-prayer issue. Six separate opinions totaling 157 pages were issued by the justices.
Kennard, joined by Justices Stanley Mosk and Allen E. Broussard, concluded that graduation prayer violated both the federal and state constitutional bans on government establishment of religion. Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas and Justice Armand Arabian reluctantly agreed that prayer conflicted with rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court--but did not reach the question of whether there was a state constitutional violation as well.
The dissenters--Justices Edward A. Panelli and Marvin R. Baxter--found no federal or state constitutional violation.
The fate of graduation prayer in California could be in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court. The federal high court, in a separate case, is expected to rule early next year on whether graduation prayers are permissible under the federal Constitution.
If the nation’s high court strikes down such prayers, the California ruling will stand unscathed. But if the high court approves of such prayer, the California ruling would be open to attack. Although the prayer issue could be struck down again on separate, independent state constitutional grounds, Monday’s vote indicated that only three of the seven justices have concluded that prayer violates the state Constitution.
Opponents of graduation prayer hailed the ruling. “This is a very important decision for what it says about separation of church and state,†said Carol A. Sobel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, attorney for two taxpayers who challenged the invocations. “This decision celebrates the pluralistic values of our democratic system.â€
In Ventura County, some high schools still include prayer in their graduation ceremonies but many have eliminated it in recent years.
“We have had an invocation at our graduation ceremonies,†said Keith Wilson, assistant principal at Thousand Oaks High School. “It hasn’t been a problem. We try to be as generic as we can because we’re in a community with a large variety of religions. But if it’s the law, we will conform with it.â€
Moorpark Memorial High School had no scheduled invocation on its program last year, but one student gave a speech as a prayer. Assistant Principal Michael Berger said the court decision could irk some if it violates free speech rights. Either way, it is sure to bother some, he said.
Other schools and districts have eliminated prayer from graduations because of earlier court decisions that were headed in that direction and because of concerns raised by some parents.
Since 1987, high schools and middle schools in the Simi Valley Unified School District have been advised to have only a moment of silence or “nothing at all†during graduation, said Allan Jacobs, associate superintendent at Simi Valley Unified School District.
The schools previously had a minister make the invocation, he said. But that was abrasive to some people, he said, and after every graduation, concerns were expressed about references to Jesus Christ.
Ian Kirkpatrick, superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District, said graduation ceremonies have not included prayer for three or four years. It was the same at Ojai’s Nordhoff High School.
“We’re a community with a lot of different religious beliefs,†said Principal Ron Barney. “There is no way to meet the needs of every student with a given prayer.â€
The case arose in the Morongo Unified School District in San Bernardino County, which for almost 50 years has permitted students to organize graduation ceremonies that include invocations and benedictions from local ministers, teachers or other guest speakers.
The prayers traditionally have been Christian in nature but nondenominational, typically asking for divine blessing on the graduates. According to court papers, one such prayer, presented at Yucca High School in 1986 by a teacher, said in part: “Dear Father. . . . We ask Your guidance as these graduates try to meet the many challenges of their future years. Grant them the strength to meet these challenges with courage, confidence and faith.â€
Two local taxpayers, James Sands and Jean Bertolette, backed by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, brought suit in 1986, contending the prayer violated provisions of the federal and state Constitutions barring the government establishment of religion.
A San Bernardino Superior Court judge granted an order prohibiting such prayers in the district, but in the fall of 1989, a state Court of Appeal reversed the decision and upheld the constitutionality of the prayers. The appellate court, applying a three-part test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971, held that the invocations were permissible because they did not have a primarily religious purpose; had only “remote and incidental†religious effect; and did not cause “excessive entanglement†between church and state.
The ACLU attorneys appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, presenting the court with its first major test of a church-state issue since conservatives emerged as a majority after the 1986 election defeat of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two other liberal justices.
In Monday’s ruling, Kennard’s plurality opinion concluded that graduation prayer not only violated the federal Constitution but state constitutional provisions she said mandated even stricter separation between church and state.
Panelli and Baxter both issued strong dissents.
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