Federal appeals court overturns Louisiana school prayer law

Church & State, Jan 2002

A Louisiana law requiring public schools to set aside time each day for spoken prayer by students and teachers violates the constitutional separation of church and state, a federal appeals court ruled Dec. 11.

In a 3-0 ruling, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans held that the statute runs afoul of the First Amendment of the Constitution. The decision is a victory for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, the two groups that challenged the law.

Americans United and the ACLU filed suit Dec. 3, 1999, on behalf of local parents and children who objected to the school-sanctioned religious worship. The suit opposed the state law, as well as officially sanctioned prayer over the intercom in the Ouachita Parish public schools.

A federal district court ruled against the statute and the local religious practices, but Louisiana officials appealed the portion of the ruling dealing with the state law. The Dec. 11 decision in the Doe v. Foster case upholds the lower court ruling.

"This decision is an important reminder that government may not meddle in the religious lives of our children," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "Public schools are supposed to teach, not preach. It's up to parents to decide what religious instruction their children receive."

The conflict springs from 1999, when the state legislature amended a state law allowing a brief time each day for silent prayer or meditation. The amendment struck the word "silent," thus allowing spoken prayer by both teachers and students.

The AU/ACLU lawsuit was brought on behalf of two families within the public school district who oppose the practices, but who have asked to remain anonymous.

The appeals court ruled that the law had a clear religious purpose, noting that during deliberation state lawmakers stated upfront that their goal was to return verbal prayer to public schools.

In other news about religion in public schools:

* Bible distribution in the public schools in Johnson County, N.C., will be discontinued due to a complaint from Americans United.

Responding to the concerns of a community resident, AU attorneys wrote to Superintendent James Causby and McGee Crossroads Elementary School Principal Terry Weakley Oct. 30, asserting that the Constitution does not permit distribution of Bibles to third and fifth graders by the Gideons, an evangelical Christian group.

Noted the AU letter, "The reason for the prohibition on Bible distribution is not that the Constitution requires schools to be hostile toward religion, but that it requires schools to remain neutral on religious matters, by neither encouraging nor discouraging particular religious points of view. In this way, schools demonstrate appropriate respect for the legal rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children."

In a Dec. 3 response, Causby said he will direct the principal to refrain from allowing further distribution at this time.

* A federal court has ruled that public school officials in Rapides Parish, La., violated the Constitution by pressuring elementary school students to accept Bibles.

U.S. District Judge FA. Little Jr. ruled Sept. 27 in favor of a Muslim girl whose parents sued the Rapides Parish School Board over Paradise Elementary School's Bible-distribution policy.

The lawsuit asserted that fifth-grade student Hesen Jabr was among a group of students summoned to Principal John Cotton's office and presented with Bibles in December of 2000. According to the complaint filed by Hesen's parents, the child said she did not want the book, but Cotton replied, "Just take it." Hesen testified that she felt pressured and accepted the Bible.

The complaint also noted that when Jabr later expressed concerns about the incident to fellow students, some of them subjected her to "scorn and ridicule" because her family is not Christian.

School officials disputed the Jabr family's account and insisted that the child could have refused the Bible, but the court found this argument unpersuasive.

"The pressure created by the principal in his office was coercive and, thus, illegal," Little wrote. "This court can imagine no more intimidating or coercive environment in an elementary school than those conditions in the principal's office." (Jabr v. Rapides Parish School Board)

* Knoxville, Tenn., school officials must stop sponsoring Christian rallies for basketball players, according to Americans United. In a Nov. 14 letter to officials at the Knox County School District, AU attorneys noted that the organization received a complaint about a Nov. 1 incident during which a basketball coach held a mandatory meeting for players featuring clergy who addressed the students about the need to adopt fundamentalist Christian beliefs and then led them in a hymn.

Americans United Legal Director Ayesha Khan enclosed information explaining the law relating to religion in public schools and asked the officials to make sure the incident is not repeated.