The Supreme Court rejected the ACLU’s request to overturn the most significant Federal Court of Appeals ruling to date on graduation prayer. The case is Adler v. Duval County School Board, in which Liberty Counsel defended a school board policy that allows students to deliver secular and religious messages at graduation. Since May of 1993, this case took us to the trial court twice, to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals five times, and to the United States Supreme Court twice. Two of the Federal Appeals Court rulings included the entire panel of twelve judges. The most recent ruling, which the Supreme Court allowed to stand, was an 8-4 victory which upheld the policy.

The school board policy in question was implemented by the Jacksonville public schools in Duval County, Florida. The policy allows graduating seniors to vote on whether the class desires to present a student message at the beginning and/or conclusion of the graduation ceremony. If a majority of the students vote in favor of a message, then the senior class either appoints or votes on a student to deliver the message. The policy further stipulates that school officials may not direct nor censor the content of the message. In contrast to other “prayer only” policies, the Duval County policy is a pure free speech policy. The students may vote to present any message, whether secular or sacred.

The ACLU did not complain about students presenting secular messages, but the group argued that some students might use the opportunity to pray. The ACLU took the extreme position that prayer in public school is per se unconstitutional.

Last year, the Federal Court of Appeals rejected the ACLU’s argument and accepted our defense of the policy. The Court recognized that the content of the student message was not predetermined under the policy. The school played no role in shaping the content of the message. Under the policy, the message is student speech, not government speech.

After the ACLU was badly beaten by the Appeals Court, the group continued their fight, asking the High Court to review this case for the second time in this eight and a half year battle. On December 10, the Supreme Court declined the ACLU’s invitation, which means that the most significant graduation prayer ruling in the country continues to stand as a beacon to guide other students and schools in the exercise of free expression.

You may wonder how the Adler “message” policy differs from the Santa Fe “prayer” policy which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2000. In the Santa Fe football case, the Texas school board policy allowed students to vote on whether to deliver a “prayer” at football games. If the students voted to say a prayer, then a student speaker would open the game with prayer. If the students voted against prayer, then no student would speak. The High Court ruled this “prayer” only policy was unconstitutional. The reason is that the Santa Fe policy gave the students only one option. That option was to pray or not to pray. In other words, the school board predetermined the content of the message. However, in Adler, the school does not predetermine the outcome of the student message. The students vote on a “message”, the content of which is entirely up to the student. This student choice is the critical difference.

Aside from winning court cases, one way to determine whether you’re having an impact on society is when the public begins parroting your phrases. The impact of music is evident when people sing the musician’s song or dress like the entertainer. The strict separationist impact is seen in their phrase “separation of church and state.” In one of the lead stories printed in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper the day following the Supreme Court decision, the title read, “Court Lets School-Prayer Policy Stand.” The story quoted a school board attorney, who stated that speakers in the district which he defends are allowed to make religious comments at graduation. He then concluded by stating, “That’s America. Students don’t lose their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse doors.” Liberty Counsel has sued this same school board on several occasions in the past, and now it is refreshing to see that the phrases we have repeated for years are coming from the lips of school board attorneys. Ten years ago, you would not have seen many school board attorneys making such a statement.

School boards around the country ought to duplicate the Adler graduation policy. Schools should remain neutral regarding graduation prayer. School board officials should not coerce nor should they prohibit prayer. Thus, students have a green light to pray at their graduation, so long as the message is chosen and directed by the student.

The Adler case underscores the reason why we must be engaged in the cultural battle for the long term. This case took eight and one-half years to develop, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend. Liberty Counsel did not charge for any of its services, nor did we shirk the long, drawn-out battle. This battle was worth the effort and the cost. We can make a difference if we engage the culture. We must show up on the battle field, and once there, we must not leave until we are victorious. Now that we have obtained this huge victory, we must take advantage of the case. You should encourage your local school board to adopt the Adler policy. Contact Liberty Counsel to obtain our “Graduation Messages” memo which contains the Adler policy and the legal arguments on why schools should adopt these important guidelines.

This case was made possible through your prayers and generous financial support. Without God’s grace and your support, we could not have waged an eight and a half year battle. We thankyou from the bottom of our hearts. Together, we are making a difference.

ACLU Picks on More Kentucky Counties Over the Ten Commandments

The ACLU filed a new round of lawsuits against four Kentucky counties regarding the display of the Ten Commandments. Liberty Counsel has stepped up to the plate to defend these public displays. The group has threatened to file lawsuits against twenty additional Kentucky counties for similar displays. From the looks of things, we may have to establish a separate department just to defend the state of Kentucky over the Ten Commandments.

As in the case of student-initiated graduation prayer, the ACLU argues that the display of the Ten Commandments is per se unconstitutional. To make such a ridiculous argument, one must completely revise American history, because each one of the Ten Commandments has profoundly shaped the development of American law and government.

In 1950, the Florida Supreme Court stated: “A people unschooled about the sovereignty of God, the Ten Commandments, and the ethics of Jesus, could never have evolved the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. There is not one solitary fundamental principle of our democratic policy that did not stem directly from the basic moral concepts as embodied in the Decalogue.”

Liberty Counsel has filed one of the most extensive briefs in federal court detailing the historical and legal basis for displaying the Ten Commandments. To obtain a summary which shows how each one of the Ten Commandments has been adopted as part of American law, call Liberty Counsel at 1-800-671-1776 and ask for our “Ten Commandments” memo. When you contact Liberty Counsel, you can also ask for my five-part tape series on the Ten Commandments that I recorded for our radio program, Faith and Freedom.

Liberty Counsel Scores Another Vaccination Victory

Dr. Lynn Friedman is a chiropractor in New York whose kindergarten son was expelled from school after she refused to have him vaccinated for religious reasons. New York law permits exemptions from a list of mandatory vaccinations if the parents present medical or religious objections. However, New York school officials have routinely denied religious exemptions, all the while knowing that they are violating state and federal law.

In Dr. Friedman’s case, school officials first sent her a lengthy questionnaire filled with trick questions. At the request of a school board official, Dr. Friedman voluntarily sat through a one and one-half hour deposition under oath. This is not unusual for New York school officials, since we have other clients who have also voluntarily sat through depositions while pleading their case for a religious exemption.

After we prepared the federal lawsuit, Liberty Counsel attorney, Joel Oster, flew to New York where he filed the case in court. The next day he got a hearing before the federal judge, who issued a Temporary Restraining Order allowing the young boy to return to school.

At Liberty Counsel, we back up our talk with action.

A Personal Note from Mat Staver

Dear Friend,

As I mentioned last month, God has given me a BIG vision for Liberty Counsel. I believe our Lord has already laid the foundation. This year we will begin building on that foundation.

In America we are in the midst of a cultural war as much as we are a physical war. The war is so widespread and the battles are so numerous that I cannot begin to list each of them. If we are not engaged in each of these battles from local board or council meetings to the Supreme Court, we will lose by default. The ACLU has not been successful because they are so talented. They’ve been successful because they show up ready for battle.

I know when we show up, the Lord has provided us with stunning victories. However, it takes a huge financial war chest and a vast array of resources to show up and win. This year we must cast our net wider. We must train and hire more attorneys. We must impact every area of legal training and education.

We must hire more staff to handle the thousands of questions we receive each year. We need researchers whose only job is to work on our legal briefs and rewrite them for publication in law journals. Our briefs are filled with buried treasure. Each brief contains many hours of legal and historical research, but most people don’t have the opportunity to read them because they are filed in some courthouse. If these briefs had wider circulation in the legal journals, they have the potential to profoundly shape the course of future legal reasoning. Many of these briefs could also be turned into popular books.

Catch the vision with me this year. We can’t accomplish this vision without the Lord’s blessing. We need you to pray for our staff and this ministry. We don’t want to lean on our wisdom or our abilities. We need God’s direction and His timing.

We can’t accomplish this vision without substantial funds. Please align your finances with your values. This ministry is not fluff. We are impacting America and her future. We need your regular financial assistance. Join Liberty Counsel this year by giving to what we are calling “Reclaiming the American Vision.” If you can regularly give $100 or more, please make a pledge to do so. If you can do more, great, but if you can’t, please give what you can. Make a pledge today.

Sincerely,

 

Mathew D. Staver

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