Monday, by a wider margin than many had anticipated, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to prohibit the practice of student-led prayers before football games. The widely anticipated decision was a rebuke to the Santa Fe, Texas, school district, which had long maintained the rights of students to lead pre-game "invocations" (the contents of which were generally left up to the students). Before two local families filed a suit against the district in 1995, many schools allowed student-elected "chaplains" to lead prayers before the games; after the suit, however, the "invocations" were introduced in a bid to downplay the religious significance of the messages.
Justice Stevens, representing the majority, unequivocally emphasized the importance of separation of church and state, pointing out that public prayer is not private speech, and is therefore not subject to First Amendment protections.
"School sponsorship of a religious message," he wrote, "is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community." School-sponsored prayer broadcast over a loudspeaker, he continued, implicitly and explicitly encourages prayer in what must remain a secular environment.
Watch for further debate. While this case depicts a very specific scenario, legal analysts say the Court's decision may indicate the Justices' intent to uphold the separation of church and state — even if it means reining in the rights shielding religious speech.