High court passes on prayer case

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court backed away from a confrontation over student-led prayers at high school graduations Monday, an action that all sides in the church-state fight say increases pressure for a stronger religious presence at public school ceremonies.

The court did not comment in turning down an appeal from a high school student near Jacksonville, Fla., who objected to the school's policy of letting the senior class pick a classmate to deliver a graduation "message."

The chosen student is often the class chaplain, an elected office like president or treasurer. Although the messages need not be religious, religion was the theme of all but four addresses delivered over three years at 17 public high schools in Duval County, Fla.

The school argued that students, not teachers or administrators, make all the decisions about whether there will be an address, who will give it and whether it will be religious.

The Supreme Court's action Monday was not a decision on the merits of the policy, but will be read as a signal that other schools can avoid constitutional problems if they install the same policy, lawyers said.

"The fact that the Supreme Court refused to review the case sends a green light to other school districts that they can produce a neutral policy," said Matthew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, a religious civil liberties and legal defense organization. The group intervened on behalf of students who wanted religious addresses.

In three states

For now, policies like Duval County's are permissible in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, the three states governed by a federal appeals court that has twice found the policy does not violate the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

"Some school districts around the country have been trying to latch onto different devices to accomplish the same purpose," since the Supreme Court banned clergy-led prayer at public school graduations in 1992, said Gray Thomas, a lawyer representing Duval students who said they were outnumbered and outvoted in opposing graduation prayer.

"I think this may be one additional idea for somebody to latch onto," Thomas said.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he is disappointed that the Supreme Court did not take on the students' appeal, but cautioned against reading too much into that action.

Nonetheless, he said, "I know religious or right-of-center groups will try to manipulate it," to advance the cause of graduation prayer.

In 1993, school officials adopted a new policy letting high school seniors decide whether to choose a fellow student to give a "brief opening and/or closing message" at graduation. The student would decide the message's content with no review by school officials.