When the Texas case was argued in March, an ABC News poll said two-thirds of Americans thought students should be permitted to lead such prayers. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold such student-led prayer. Joining Stevens were Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented in a vigorous opinion by Rehnquist. Their identities were sealed by the courts.
Speakers are free to choose what they say so long as it promotes good sportsmanship.
School officials appealed both parts of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling, but the Supreme Court agreed only to focus on the football games, passing up the graduation-ceremony dispute. Prayers over the football stadium's public address system were heard at all of Santa Fe High School's home football games last fall. Right after the 5th Circuit court's ruling, a group of Christian students led by senior band member Marian Ward obtained a judge's order allowing that invocations be continued. Ward, who led the prayers at those games, attended the Supreme Court's argument session in the Santa Fe case in March. The ruling was viewed as a strong reaffirmation of the court's 1962 landmark decision banning organized school prayer.