WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge arguing that student-led prayers at public high school graduations violate constitutional requirements on church-state separation.
The high court, without any comment or dissent, refused to review the policy in Duval County, Florida, that permits prayers at graduation ceremonies when the decision has been made by student referendum.
A number of past and current students challenged the policy for violating the Constitution's First Amendment. They said the policy had been adopted in 1993 with the purpose of school endorsement of student prayer.
The policy provides for a vote by the senior class on the graduation ceremony "message."
Of 62 messages at various schools, 58 were titled "invocation" or "benediction" or were delivered by a student "chaplain." Only four messages lacked a clear indication of religious intent or content, according to those who sued.
A federal judge and a U.S. appeals court upheld the policy.
The appeals court said to hold the policy unconstitutional would "effectively ban all religious speech at school graduations, no matter how private the message or how divorced the content of the message may be from any state review."
In appealing to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the students said the case presented a recurring question of importance throughout the United States involving prayer at graduation exercises.
The last time it addressed the issue on June 19, 2000, the Supreme Court struck down student-led prayers at high school football games. In 1992, it ruled that public schools may not require prayers by clergy members at graduation ceremonies.
The Supreme Court's landmark 1962 decision barred organized, officially sponsored prayers from public school classrooms.
A group of students who intervened in the case defended it as a "neutral" policy that allows a volunteer elected by the senior class to deliver a secular or religious message that is not reviewed, censored or directed by school officials.
They said that requiring school officials to censor all religious content would violate the student's free-speech rights. The message's content was solely the decision of the student speaker, the students who supported the policy said.