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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (82032)	6/19/2000 1:32:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Court: No Student-Led Prayer at School Sports Events By RICHARD CARELLI .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (June 19) - The Supreme Court, in the most far-reaching school prayer decision in nearly a decade, ruled Monday that public school districts cannot let students lead stadium crowds in prayer before high school football games. The 6-3 decision in a Texas case said such prayers violate the constitutionally required separation of government and religion. ``School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherents 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,'' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court. ``The delivery of such a message - over the school's public address system by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school faculty and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly encourages public prayer - is not properly characterized as private speech,'' he said. The decision - the most sweeping on this issue since the court prohibited clergy-led prayers at public school graduation ceremonies in 1992 - could carry enormous significance beyond football games or other high school sports events. As the latest word on a politically volatile issue that has bedeviled the nation's highest court for 40 years, the ruling offered a ringing reaffirmation of a landmark 1962 decision that outlawed organized, officially sponsored prayer in public schools.