Post by Messenger on May 12, 2007 9:27:51 GMT -5
One News Now!
This is a step in the right direction!
Bill
LA schools allow student graduation prayer
Ed Thomas
OneNewsNow.com
May 12, 2007
The head of a First Amendment public-interest law firm says his own experience proves the American Civil Liberties Union is wrong in claiming that a Louisiana school district's plan to allow student-led prayers at high school graduations this spring is unconstitutional.
The Associated Press reports that Ouachita Parish will allow the senior class in all six of its public high schools to decide whether to include a prayer in their graduation ceremonies. The seniors will also have the choice of electing a student to lead the prayer. That is where the ACLU's objection comes in, according to statements from the civil liberties group's state director Joe Cook.
Mat Staver, chairman and founder of Liberty Counsel, says non-mandated student prayer is legal, and that it would actually be unconstitutional to ban such a free speech right. "The ACLU is giving out erroneous information," he asserts. "In fact, as long as it's student-initiated or student orchestrated," Staver points out, "that message is clearly constitutional, even if it's prayer or if it's decidedly religious."
That finding comes from a Supreme Court decision in a legal case with which Staver himself was involved on behalf of a high school in the southeast United States, the attorney notes. "I litigated for eight and a half years against the ACLU in the very case that set this precedent," he says. "It went before the Court of Appeals four times, and before the U.S. Supreme Court twice. It's the Adler case out of Florida."
The ACLU does not care what the law is, Staver contends, but only about its own ideological agenda. And that agenda, he says, is bent on silencing people of faith, particularly Christians.
Ed Thomas
OneNewsNow.com
May 12, 2007
The head of a First Amendment public-interest law firm says his own experience proves the American Civil Liberties Union is wrong in claiming that a Louisiana school district's plan to allow student-led prayers at high school graduations this spring is unconstitutional.
The Associated Press reports that Ouachita Parish will allow the senior class in all six of its public high schools to decide whether to include a prayer in their graduation ceremonies. The seniors will also have the choice of electing a student to lead the prayer. That is where the ACLU's objection comes in, according to statements from the civil liberties group's state director Joe Cook.
Mat Staver, chairman and founder of Liberty Counsel, says non-mandated student prayer is legal, and that it would actually be unconstitutional to ban such a free speech right. "The ACLU is giving out erroneous information," he asserts. "In fact, as long as it's student-initiated or student orchestrated," Staver points out, "that message is clearly constitutional, even if it's prayer or if it's decidedly religious."
That finding comes from a Supreme Court decision in a legal case with which Staver himself was involved on behalf of a high school in the southeast United States, the attorney notes. "I litigated for eight and a half years against the ACLU in the very case that set this precedent," he says. "It went before the Court of Appeals four times, and before the U.S. Supreme Court twice. It's the Adler case out of Florida."
The ACLU does not care what the law is, Staver contends, but only about its own ideological agenda. And that agenda, he says, is bent on silencing people of faith, particularly Christians.
This is a step in the right direction!
Bill
