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. Two families one Catholic and one Mormon challenged the policy. 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 justices' last major ruling on school prayer was announced in 1992, and barred clergy-led prayers invocations and benedictions at public school graduation ceremonies.