Court Upholds Fla. District's Graduation-Message Policy

A Florida school district's policy allowing high school seniors to vote on whether a member of their graduating class may deliver a commencement message that could include a prayer does not violate the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled last week.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, voted 10-2 to uphold the Duval County school district's policy.

After the U.S. Supreme Court barred clergy-led graduation prayers in 1992, the 127,000-student district decided to allow graduating seniors to select one of their own to deliver a two-minute message "without monitoring or...