Appeals Court Bans Prayers At High School Games

GALVESTON, Tex. (EP) -- Student-led public prayers may be permitted at high school graduation ceremonies, but not at football games, according to a 2-1 ruling by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The March 1 ruling could end a longstanding tradition of pregame prayers in Texas.

The decision came in a lawsuit challenging a policy of Galveston's Santa Fe Independent School District which permitted "student-selected, student-given, non-sectarian, non-proselytizing" prayers to be read over the public address system at football games. The policy said the purpose of such prayers was "to solemnize the event, to promote good sportsmanship and student safety, and to establish the appropriate environment for the competition."

In its March 1 ruling, the circuit court struck down the football prayer policy. It also struck down a similar policy permitting prayers at graduation ceremonies, saying the policy was not worded strictly enough to pass constitutional muster.

Judges Jacques Weiner and Carl Stewart said that unlike graduation exercises, football games are "hardly the type of annual event that can be appropriately solemnized with prayer."

In a lengthy dissent, Judge Grady Jolly argued that the decision by his colleagues wrongly "exerts control over the content of its citizens' prayers" and "transgresses the most fundamental First Amendment rights." He added, "When the government restricts sectarian and proselytizing speech, while embracing ecumenical religious speech, the government has engaged in illegitimate viewpoint discrimination."

Kelly Shackleford, general counsel for the Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute, said, "The government has no right to monitor the content of children's prayers. But for the first time, the court now is mandating the monitoring of prayers, telling which ones are approved and which are not."

The ruling is consistent with an earlier ruling by the Georgia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled on the constitutionality of prayer at public high school sporting events. The Court has ruled that schools may not invite clergy to give invocations at graduation ceremonies, but that student-led prayers may be permitted. The decision may be appealed.

In a related case, a federal appeals court rejected an appeal of a lower court's decision upholding an eastern Idaho school district policy permitting student-initiated prayers at high school graduation. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the Madison School District can continue to permit top students in each senior class to decide whether to include a prayer in their graduation speeches.