Group Opposes Easing of Church-State Policy : Constitution: The broad Christian-Jewish coalition joins in asking the Supreme Court to reject a petition to take a more lenient stand on government-supported religious practices.

A broad coalition of Christian, Jewish and religious liberty organizations have joined in a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain the principle of government neutrality toward religion.

In a brief filed this week, the groups asked the high court to reject a petition by the U.S. solicitor general that the court replace its 20-year standards for dealing with establishment-of-religion cases with a more lenient standard under which government could support or promote religious practices as long as people are not forced to take part.

The case, known as Lee vs. Weisman, is based on a lawsuit filed in 1989 against the school board of Providence, R.I., on behalf of Daniel and Vivian Weisman, whose daughter, Deborah, graduated from the Nathan Bishop Middle School in Providence that year.

Although the Weismans are Jewish, they objected to the offering of graduation prayers by a rabbi on the ground that any prayer at any public school ceremony violates church-state separation. Two federal courts ruled that the practice violated the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment, and the case has now been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In an earlier ruling, the Supreme Court said that a government policy or practice does not violate the establishment clause if it has “a secular purpose,” if “the principal or primary effect” neither advances nor inhibits religion, and if it does not foster “excessive government entanglement with religion.”

The joint brief in the current case, which was prepared by University of Texas law professor Douglas Laycock, says that under the Bush Administration’s proposal “the President, the Congress or the Providence School Committee could adopt and promulgate creeds. The only constraint would be that government could not coerce people to believe in these creeds.”

The brief also rejects the argument that graduation prayers represent voluntary practices, saying that a public school commencement ceremony takes place before a “captive audience of young children.”

In addition to the Baptist Joint Committee, groups taking part in the joint brief include the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, National Council of Churches, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Americans United for Separation of Church and State, National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, New York Coalition for Public Education and Religious Liberty (PEARL), Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, People for the American Way, American Jewish Committee and American Jewish Congress.