Federal court nixes SC court's ruling on graduation prayers


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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A federal court in Virginia ruled Tuesday that it's now up to a South Carolina judge to consider if members of a humanist organization can continue a legal challenge over prayers during graduation ceremonies at a public school.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a federal court in South Carolina must also determine if it's constitutional for the public schools in the Greenville County School District to hold events at religious venues.

The dispute began in 2013, when the American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit on behalf of a fifth-grade student at Mountain View Elementary School, arguing that the school had been improperly holding graduation ceremonies at North Greenville University, which is affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

According to the suit, a student known only as "Jill Doe" was "offended, affronted and distressed" her school was "affiliating itself with and endorsing Christianity" by including prayers during her graduation and holding the ceremony at the private Baptist-affiliated university. The association also argued that such ceremonies violate the First Amendment.

The girl's parents, who are also part of the lawsuit, say they felt their daughter was being pressured to believe in God and "coerced into participating in the school-sponsored religious activity."

A state-level federal judge ruled that the school district could keep holding events at places of worship and allowing student-led prayers while the lawsuit went forward. The humanist group appealed that ruling, and a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit ultimately ordered a different district-level judge to mull that issue.

In 2015, a second South Carolina federal judge, U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks, denied the Humanist Association's request to stop area schools from using North Greenville's chapel for graduations. Hendricks also ruled that the school district could let students who are selected to speak at graduation to use their own First Amendment right to pray.

The school district selected students to pray at graduations from 1951 until 2013, including those prayers as a scheduled part of its graduation programs at all schools, according to court filings. In 2013, it changed the prayer policy, allowing students to pray if they chose but not making the prayers a scheduled portion of the graduation.

As part of that ruling, there was a judgment issued in favor of the Humanist Association, allowing them to recover nominal damages in the amount of $1. The Humanist Association appealed again, taking issue with the district's past policies on prayer and use of religious venues, as well as its revised policies.

The girl and her family have since moved to another state. The appellate court on Tuesday said the family's interest can be dismissed due to that move but that the Humanist Association can continue to represent other families who might have similar objections to prayers and religious venues being used.

In a statement, an attorney said the Humanist Association was pleased with Tuesday's appellate ruling. A school district spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the school district has said that the ceremony is held at North Greenville because the elementary school cannot accommodate the more than 1,000 people who attend the ceremonies.

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Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP . Read more of her work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/meg-kinnard/

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