Opinion ID: 683213
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Free Speech and Free Exercise

Text: 64 Like the school district in Collins, the district here and the intervenors argue that to deny students permission to pray at graduation would violate the students' rights to free speech and free exercise of religion. See Collins, 644 F.2d at 762-63. Essentially, the district and intervenors argue that, by giving the senior class authority to control events at graduation, the government has created an open forum at which, under the First Amendment, the government may not limit the speech that occurs. In support, they cite Mergens, 496 U.S. at 248, 110 S.Ct. at 2370-71 (opinion of O'Connor, J., for herself and three other Justices) (quoting Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. at 271, 274, 102 S.Ct. at 275, 276); Kreisner, 1 F.3d at 775 (holding that the city could not constitutionally exclude from a city park a creche displayed at Christmas by a private group); Jaffe v. Alexis, 659 F.2d 1018, 1020 (9th Cir.1981) (holding that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) could not constitutionally prohibit Krishnas from disseminating tracts and soliciting funds on DMV property that the DMV had made generally available to the public for speech activities); and Hedges v. Wauconda Community Unit Sch. Dist. No. 118, 9 F.3d 1295 (7th Cir.1993) (holding that a school could not prohibit or restrict students' dissemination of religious literature more than other literature). As discussed above, in Mergens various kinds of non-school-related speech were allowed on a nondiscriminatory basis. See 496 U.S. at 243-47, 110 S.Ct. at 2368-70. The same was true in Widmar, 454 U.S. at 267, 274, 102 S.Ct. at 273, 276, Kreisner, 1 F.3d at 778, and Jaffe, 659 F.2d at 1020. Moreover, the city park at issue in Kreisner was a traditional open forum. 1 F.3d at 783. Our conclusion that the Grangeville High graduation is not an open or public forum with regard to the prayers disposes of this free speech argument. 65 Collins disposes of the free exercise argument. [T]hese high school students are free to worship together as they please before and after the school day, Collins, 644 F.2d at 763 (internal quotations omitted), and outside of the graduation ceremony. Moreover, by entering the public sphere and planning a state-controlled, state-sponsored meeting, the students entered the domain of the Establishment Clause. When the explicit Establishment Clause proscription against prayer in the public schools is considered the protections of political and religious speech are inapposite. 644 F.2d at 763 (internal quotations omitted). 8 66 Contrary to the suggestion of the district and the arguments of the intervenors, the district court will have little if any difficulty fashioning an enforceable remedy in this case. Nor will the school district have difficulty outlining what may take place at graduation. Just as the school district gave permission to the senior class to plan graduation in part, it may take back its permission in part. The school purportedly gave seniors this chance to plan graduation in order to teach them leadership. If so, then it can teach them the responsibilities that go with such leadership, one of which is to respect the constitutional rights of others.