La. School Prayer Law Stays Voided

A federal appeals court Tuesday declared unconstitutional Louisiana’s school prayer law, which evolved from allowing a moment of silent meditation in 1976 to permitting spoken prayer in public classrooms.

A panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 3 to 0, to uphold a judge’s 1999 ruling striking the law down. The state had asked the appeals court to reinstate the law.

A 1976 Louisiana law initially allowed for silent meditation. It was amended in 1992 to include the word “prayer” and again in 1999 to remove the word “silent.”

The mother of a ninth-grader sued the Ouachita Parish School Board because students had made fun of her son and another boy who did not participate in prayer, calling them “atheist” and “devil worshiper.”

In voiding the Louisiana law, U.S. District Judge Robert James rejected the state’s contention that the statute is “neutral” toward religion. The appeals court agreed.

A week after James’ ruling, the school board voted to stop student-led prayers over the intercom at West Monroe High School in a settlement reached with the American Civil Liberties Union.

In a historic 1961 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said that organized school prayer violates the separation of church and state.

“Once again, the Louisiana Legislature has passed an unconstitutional law, resulting in local governments, in this case a school board, spending money that could have been better used to educate our children,” said Joe Cook, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU. “The purpose of the Legislature was to defy Supreme Court rulings of long standing.”

The state attorney general’s office said it has not decided how to proceed. It could appeal to the full 5th Circuit or the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the high court rejected an appeal from a Florida high school student who objected to his school’s policy of letting the senior class pick a classmate to deliver a religious message at graduation.