Supreme Court refuses to hear school prayer case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a ruling that struck down the Virginia Military Institute’s mealtime prayers as unconstitutional, causing two the court’s most conservative member to speak out against the court’s liberal judges avoiding an important church-state dispute.

The decision let stand last year's ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that the cadets voluntary prayer violated their First Amendment rights. Nonparticipating cadets were required to remain respectfully “at rest” during the voluntary prayer.

In May of 2001, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the V.M.I. on behalf of two cadets, Neil Mellen and Paul Knick. The cadets felt offended by the institution’s long-standing tradition of praying before supper. On January 24, 2002, U.S. District Judge Norman Moon ruled that the prayers violated the wall of “separation between church and state.”

Justice Antonin Scalia, joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, said the court should have taken the case to answer for the first time whether its ban on school-sponsored prayer for young children applies to adults as well and about the constitutionality of traditional religious observance in military institutions

Scalia stated, “The only explanation for the Court’s refusal to resolve a Circuit conflict of such consequence is a perceived procedural tangle of the Court’s own making.”

"The weighty questions raised by petitioners ... deserve this court's attention," he wrote in his dissent.

Justice John Paul Stevens in a separate opinion countered that the V.M.I. case may be important, but has procedural problems. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer joined Stevens in agreement.

V.M.I. has previously seen another of its traditions abolished by this court," Scalia wrote, referring to the court's 1996 decision mandating coeducation at V.M.I.. "This time, however, its cause has been ignored rather than rejected -- though the consequences will be just the same."

Scalia called the voluntary prayer issue "a constitutional issue of considerable consequence."

"The weighty questions raised by petitioners ... deserve this court's attention," he wrote in his dissent.

V.M.I., based in Lexington, Virginia, issued a statement saying it was "disappointed the Supreme Court has decided not to hear the case, but we will abide by the decision of the 4th Circuit." The prayers stopped in January 2002 when Judge Norman Moon ruled that the prayers violated the wall of “separation between church and state.”

According to the Roanoke Times, State Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore (R), whose office defended V.M.I. in the case, said the Supreme Court's "inaction on this issue creates a tear in the fabric of our country."

"It is disheartening," Kilgore said in a statement, "that while American soldiers are fighting for our liberties in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, our young men and women training to be soldiers and leaders at V.M.I. are prevented from praying for their safety as a body."

Published, May 2004

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