Editorial: Proper call made on school prayers

Wednesday, June 21, 2000 | 9:36 a.m.

The U.S. Supreme Court was correct in ruling Monday that it was unconstitutional for a Texas high school to officially sponsor prayer. The Santa Fe Independent School District's policy allowed a majority of students to elect a student who, in turn, could deliver a public invocation before football games. Two families, one Mormon and one Catholic, argued that this scheme violated the Constitution's separation of church and state.

As Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority in a 6-3 decision, such a policy violated the First Amendment since the school district itself was involved in the election and established parameters for the content of the speech. "Contrary to the district's repeated assertions that it has adopted a hands-off approach to the pregame invocation, the realities of the situation plainly reveal that its policy involves both perceived and actual endorsement of a religion," Stevens wrote.

The ruling doesn't stop students from voluntarily praying: they still will be allowed to pray on their own while in school, including before a meal. What the court found objectionable in Texas was the school itself proscribing how the prayers would be conducted. Even so, some will argue, as did Chief Justice William Rehnquist in his dissent, that this ruling "bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life." But religious matters should not carry the imprimatur of government. Indeed, religions should be wary of any official intervention in this sphere. The correct place to foster faith belongs with the individual and their families, not the hand of government.