Georgia students may continue to start the school day with a 60-second moment of silence, a federal appeals court said last week, ruling that the state-mandated “period of quiet reflection” does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on government establishment of religion.
The third moment-of-silence law to reach a federal appeals court, Georgia’s statute is the first to withstand constitutional scrutiny, said Harland Loeb, a lawyer for the Anti-Defamation League’s Midwest region.
Also on May 6, a three-judge panel from the same U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, declined to rule on the constitutionality of a policy in Florida’s Duval County school district that gives seniors two minutes to make uncensored statements at their high school graduation ceremonies. Some students have used the time to pray.
In the Georgia case, Brian G. Bown, a suburban Atlanta teacher who was fired for not observing a moment of silence in his class, challenged the law as an attempt to sneak prayer into public schools that would force teachers to monitor student prayer.
The three-judge appeals panel, upholding a lower court’s decision, said May 6 that the law passes the three-pronged test set by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 on church-state issues: It has a clear secular purpose, does not promote or inhibit religion, and does not excessively entangle government and religion.
The 1994 state law was part of a legislative package designed to curtail violent crime among juveniles. It says students may use the minute for “silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day.” But it does not authorize student-initiated prayers at school or school events as Mr. Bown contends, the panel held.
Mr. Loeb said the decision “is part of a continuing effort of religious groups to reintroduce prayer and religion in public life.”
But Linda Hamrick, a co-founder of the conservative United Parents for Excellence in Education, a Georgia group, said as long as state legislators open their sessions with prayer, students should at least be allowed to observe a moment of silence. “Why is the classroom out of bounds for things that the highest officials in the land do?” asked Ms. Hamrick.
Mr. Bown’s lawyer, Steven Leibel, of Atlanta, said he plans to appeal the decision in Bown v. Gwinnett County School District to the Supreme Court.
Moot Point in Florida Case
In the Duval County case, the three-judge panel declined to either uphold or strike down the school system’s graduation policy. Instead, the court zeroed in on technical aspects of the case filed by three students and their parents in 1993. A fourth student joined Adler v. Duval County School Board in 1994.
The court said the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary injunction to block enforcement of the graduation-speech policy was moot because the students involved in the case have since graduated. Further, the former students cannot collect damages, the court said.
But Gray Thomas, the Jacksonville, Fla., lawyer who represents the students’ families, argued that the case still merits review because the graduates have younger siblings in the Duval County schools. He said he may appeal the panel’s finding to the full 11th Circuit court.
