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...............jude24
If the First Amendment prohibited the government from providing any forum that could be used for religious expression, the Chaplain Corps in the Armed Forces would be unconstitutional.
The First Amendment does prohibit government from forcing your participation in a religious service but it does not protect you from your fellow citizens willingly exercising their First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights at a graduation any more than it protects you from hearing some atheist parent shout out "God is Dead!" at a graduation.
But, let's take this discussion out of the hypothetical and straight into reality.
As I answered peggybac in Post 39:
What would happen if a group of students stood and said The Lord's Prayer, and others joined in???........... peggybac
That would be a Constitutional right under the Free Exercise Clause........ Polybius
That scenario is exactly what happened at that graduation:
Judge: No prayer at graduation (But KY students ignore ACLU ruling, recite Lord's Prayer!)
Some might think that is inconsiderate to non-Christians and that "they should have done it on their own time". Some might even believe that it is unconstitutional and that they had no legal right to do so.
Be that as it may, the fact of the legal matter is that those people at the graduation exercised their First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights and, constitutionally, there is not a damned thing that the Judge or the ACLU or an offended atheist parent can do about it.
The chaplaincy corps is a unique situation. Clearly there is a qualitative difference between providing professional ministers to those serving in a military conflict at threat of their own personal safety. Even so, no one is compelled to go to visit the chaplain. Graduation, on the other hand, is an official state ceremony where you get the certificate that says you met your state's legal requirements as a child.
Be that as it may, the fact of the legal matter is that those people at the graduation exercised their First Amendment Free Exercise Clause rights and, constitutionally, there is not a damned thing that the Judge or the ACLU or an offended atheist parent can do about it.
Once again, there's a difference between students spontaneously doing this (without official state sanction) and making it a part of the graduation ceremony. Whether it was inconsiderate is a question that the law has no right to answer. Whether it's legal it give an answer of "yes," unless a government agent - whether an employee of the govenrment or a student acting in an official capacity - instigated it.