Robertson Leads Fray Over Prayer
The battle over God at graduation continues this spring as lawyers from Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law & Justice launch a nationwide campaign to explain the legal ins and outs of student-led prayer at public high school ceremonies.
Bulletins have been mailed to the nation’s 15,000 public school superintendents, and advertisements are scheduled to run in Christian publications outlining a 1992 federal appeals court decision that says prayer at graduation is constitutional so long as it is initiated and led by students, not school officials.
Robertson’s legal team is currently involved in disputes about graduation prayer in more than 130 school districts around the country--and “legal SWAT teams” are poised to take on anyone else who tries to quash student prayer.
The American Civil Liberties Union, however, warns that Robertson’s team is on shaky legal footing. The appeals court ruling only allows student-led prayer if it’s non-sectarian, doesn’t proselytize and is approved by school officials, says ACLU legislative counsel Robert Peck. And even with those conditions, it’s still unconstitutional, he adds.
The Supreme Court has been asked to review the case.
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