Posted on 04/30/2003 2:16:30 PM PDT by berserker
The Naval Academy should review its practice of leading students in lunchtime prayer, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland said yesterday. A federal appeals court decision involving the Virginia Military Institute raises serious legal questions about the practice, the group said.
VMI's suppertime grace violated the First Amendment because of a "coercive atmosphere" that gave students little choice about participating, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction covers Maryland, Virginia and three other states, ruled Monday.
"The logic of the decision applies directly to the Naval Academy practice," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, which sued VMI on behalf of two cadets. "The Naval Academy has the prayer on a daily basis; they're sponsored by the school; they take place at meals where everyone is required to attend."
David Rocah, staff attorney for the ACLU's Maryland chapter, said, "I'm calling on them to re-examine" their practice. He wouldn't discuss whether the group was planning any legal action.
The Naval Academy is the only federal service academy to lead students in a mealtime grace. The Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies offer a moment of silence before meals; West Point doesn't even offer that.
Officials at the Naval Academy declined to comment yesterday. But a Navy official said the service will review the ruling.
The noontime ritual may date to the Naval Academy's founding in 1845. A chaplain climbs a platform at the mess hall and leads students in a short, nondenominational grace. The school's 4,000 midshipmen don't have to pray. But they must be in attendance, with latecomers facing the same discipline as those tardy to class.
Academy spokesman Cmdr. Bill Spann defended the ritual last fall. "We feel strongly that adequate personal and spiritual development is an important aspect to developing a 21st-century warrior," he said.
Monday's ruling by a three-judge panel in Richmond, Va., upheld a January 2002 decision of U.S. District Court in Lynchburg, Va. The appellate judges said VMI's culture of "obedience and conformity" made the prayer ritual unconstitutional, even if students are free to remain silent. "VMI's cadets are plainly coerced into participating in a religious exercise," the judges wrote. "The technical 'voluntariness' of the supper prayer does not save it from its constitutional infirmities."
Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore vowed to seek a review by the full 4th Circuit. He said VMI's prayers were "precisely the sort of prayers" recited at the Naval Academy and across the military.
I thought that was exactly what the First Amendment was designed to prohibit!
Clearly the ACLU is composed of the Running Dog Lackies of the Ayatollah's in the judiciary. It is long overdue to overturn this evil combine, jail it's practitioners and ban it's admirers.
The ACLU is literally asking a federal government agency to evaluate a religious practice.Precisely! Court prohibitions of prayer amounts to the establishment of a religion -- atheism.I thought that was exactly what the First Amendment was designed to prohibit!
Amendment 1The VMI decision upheld the ACLU whimpering and whining that the lunchtime prayer was affected in an environment of coercion. Maybe I get the courts to make everyone in the theater quit applauding when I think the performance sucks.Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
What part of "free exercise" don't they get?
Borrow as many of these as you need:
*****************************************
*****************************************
*****************************************
*****************************************
*****************************************
Selection into any of the service academies is both an honor and a privilege, and worship (God) was always an integral part of "honor, duty, service, country."
Husband says if ACLU is sucessful in removing (prohibiting) prayer at USNA, then the US Senate and House will have to dispense with their morning prayers.
If that was quoted-which is in the 1st Bill of Rights-as much on FR as the mythical Right To Privacy, then the ACLU would be out of things to complain about.
I was watching this session on the tv show "24" and the President had a neat idea of how to get his CIA chief to talk.
Dershowitz said torture is probably not unconstitutional, so it would be OK to use on the ACLU management and their adherents when it comes time to run them to ground (come the revolution, eh?!).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.