Judge Voids Alabama School Prayer Law

A federal judge Thursday struck down a school prayer law in Alabama, a Bible Belt state where politicians encourage religious expression in classrooms and courtrooms.

Michael Chandler, an assistant principal at Valley Head Middle School, fought the 1993 measure requiring all school-related events to permit “non-sectarian, non-proselytizing student-initiated, voluntary prayer.”

Chandler and a student’s mother contended that the law forced teachers to allow students to pray out loud in class and give readings from the Bible, with students told to stand in the hall if they didn’t want to take part.

U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent said the law violates the Constitution by creating “excessive entanglement” between religion and state and leaving some students with “no choice but to listen to the prayers of their peers.”

Gov. Forrest “Fob” James Jr. said through a spokesman that he believes the 1st Amendment allows every American to pray “whenever and wherever” and that he would not tell the people of Alabama to obey the ruling. Attorneys for the state threatened to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling comes at a time when James and other political figures have rallied behind a state judge in Gadsden who has been ordered to stop conducting prayers at the start of court sessions and to remove a carved display of the Ten Commandments from behind his bench.

James has said he would send in state troopers if necessary to support expressions of religious faith in Alabama courtrooms.

DeMent, along with striking down the 1993 law, spelled out various forms of student religious expression that he said generally are permissible. They included group prayers outside of organized classes and the wearing of religious symbols, even replicas of the Ten Commandments.