Posted on 05/19/2006 1:49:30 PM PDT by peggybac
A federal judge on Friday blocked a southern Kentucky high school from including prayers in its graduation ceremony Friday evening.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit this week seeking a restraining order on behalf of an unidentified student at Russell County High School in Russell Springs, 90 miles south of Louisville.
The student had appealed to principal Darren Gossage to drop the prayer from the Friday evening ceremony, but the principal refused, ACLU attorney Lili Lutgens said.
Lutgens argued that any prayer would be unconstitutional because it would endorse a specific religion and religious views. U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley granted the temporary restraining order Friday morning, prohibiting the school district from having even a student representative say a prayer during the ceremony.
A call to Gossage's office was not immediately returned.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that clergy-led prayer in public school graduations and sporting events is prohibited. Lutgens said earlier this week that student-initiated prayer before or after the ceremony would be OK.
Ahh, the ACLU. Fighting for Americans' liberty to, umm... face massive government interference whenever they try to do anything.
Don't we pay for their damned lawsuits? Are they tax-exempt?
Anyway, Judge Joseph McKinley becomes a nominee to the Judges Hall of Shame.
I graduated high school in 1995, Spencer County High School, Taylorsville KY. Up until then (I don't know if this is the case now) it was a tradition that a few days before the graduation ceremony there would be a Baaculaureate. It was an expected thing, completely voluntary, and as far as I could remember, NO ONE had a problem with it. My school also had the Ten Commandments hanging in at least a handful of classrooms. My how things have changed in such a short amount of time...
Do it any way! Say the prayer and pay the fine or go to jail or whatever the penalty is, but say the graduation prayers.
Hee is a way to make them angry..the whole class
on the signal...pepper...all sneeze at once...and
all say: GOD BLESS YOU.... jAKE
This is going to continue until the American people wake up and say "no more." Slowly, all our liberties are being eroded and the silent majority is still silent. People better wake up pronto.
Sue the judge.
Such grave and weighty issues our federal courts deal with ...!
I still maintain that an interpretation of the Constitution which pits the "free exercise" clause against the "establishment" clause cannot be the correct interpretation. Applying the 1st Amendment to the states uttterly inverts its meaning. It was intended as a curb on federal power, i.e., "Congress shall make no law . . ."; now it is used to bring federal authority into purely local matters.
Well said. The second portion of the establishment clause reads, "(n)or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The very amendment designed to protect our religious rights has been turned on its head to proscribe religious freedom. It is way past time to challenge the black robes. I hope the graduates figuratively flip off the tyrant judge and publicly pray.
Isn't that what Baccalaureate is for? Do schools still have that?
Give the potential listeners...ear plugs.
That would be a Constitutional right under the Free Exercise Clause.
Nobody is prohibited from praying on their own time. The First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing a forum.
Please stop pinging me every time the law does something you don't like because you don't understand it. Don't pretend you know it all just because you read the Constitution in high school.
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