Opinion ID: 515250
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Equal Access Plan's Facial Validity

Text: 10 The district court held that the equal access plan, which involves the random selection of an invocation speaker, was constitutional on its face. The Jagers challenge this holding on appeal. 11 The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids the enactment of any law or practice respecting an establishment of religion. 7 U.S. Const. Amend. I. The religion clauses of the First Amendment require that states pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion. Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 60, 105 S.Ct. 2479, 2491, 86 L.Ed.2d 29 (1985) (Jaffree II ). To determine whether state action embodies the neutrality that comports with the Establishment Clause, this Court must apply a three-pronged analysis. See Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 612-13, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 2111, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971). We must ask whether (1) the Douglas County School Superintendent and the school principals had a secular purpose for adopting the equal access plan, (2) the plan's primary effect is one that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and (3) the plan does not result in an excessive entanglement of government with religion. Id. at 612-13, 91 S.Ct. at 2111. State action violates the Establishment Clause if it fails to meet any of these three criteria. Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 107 S.Ct. 2573, 2577, 96 L.Ed.2d 510 (1987). 12 The School District argues that the Lemon test does not apply here. Instead, the School District contends that Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 103 S.Ct. 3330, 77 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1983), provides the standard for determining whether the equal access plan violates the Establishment Clause. In Marsh, the Supreme Court upheld Nebraska's practice of commencing state legislative sessions with a prayer delivered by a chaplain employed by the state. In refusing to declare Nebraska's legislative invocation unconstitutional, the Court relied on the unique history associated with the practice of opening legislative sessions with a prayer. Id. at 791, 103 S.Ct. at 3335-36. The practice existed at the time of the adoption of the First Amendment and had continued in many states to the present. See id. at 792, 103 S.Ct. at 3336 (In light of the unambiguous and unbroken history of more than 200 years, there can be no doubt that the practice of opening legislative sessions with prayer has become part of the fabric of our society.). Since the Continental Congress and the First Congress opened their sessions with prayers, the Marsh Court concluded that the drafters of the Establishment Clause undoubtedly perceived no threat from legislative prayer and did not intend to prohibit legislative invocations. Id. at 791, 103 S.Ct. at 3335-36. 13 Because Marsh was based on more than 200 years of the unique history of legislative invocations, it has no application to the case at bar. The instant case involves the special context of the public elementary and secondary school system, Edwards, 107 S.Ct. at 2577, in which the Supreme Court has been particularly vigilant in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause. Id. As the Supreme Court recently explained: 14 [t]he Lemon test has been applied in all cases since its adoption in 1971, except in Marsh v. Chambers, where the Court held that the Nebraska legislature's practice of opening a session with a prayer by a chaplain paid by the State did not violate the Establishment Clause. The Court based its conclusion in that case on the historical acceptance of the practice. Such a historical approach is not useful in determining the proper roles of church and state in public schools, since free public education was virtually nonexistent at the time the Constitution was adopted. 15 Edwards, 107 S.Ct. at 2577 n. 4 (citations omitted). 8 Similarly, the present case does not lend itself to Marsh 's historical approach because invocations at school-sponsored football games were nonexistent when the Constitution was adopted. Therefore, the Lemon test guides this Court's analysis in the case at bar. 9
16 The first prong of the Lemon test asks whether the challenged practice had a secular purpose. In applying the purpose test, it is appropriate to ask 'whether government's actual purpose is to endorse or disapprove of religion.'  Jaffree II, 472 U.S. at 56, 105 S.Ct. at 2489 (quoting Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 690, 104 S.Ct. 1355, 1368, 79 L.Ed.2d 604 (1984) (O'Connor, J., concurring)). Clearly, the equal access plan in the case at bar was adopted with the actual purpose of endorsing and perpetuating religion. 17 The district court found that pregame invocations serve four purposes: (1) to continue a longstanding custom and tradition, (2) to add a solemn and dignified tone to the proceedings, (3) to remind the spectators and players of the importance of sportsmanship and fair play, 10 and (4) to satisfy the genuine, good faith wishes on the part of a majority of the citizens of Douglas County to publicly express support for Protestant Christianity. R1-24-19. The School District could serve all of its cited secular purposes by requiring wholly secular inspirational speeches about sportsmanship, fair play, safety, and the values of teamwork and competition. 11 Indeed, the Jagers offered to accept a pregame invocation consisting of a secular inspirational speech. Since the School District rejected this compromise even though it would have fulfilled the three secular purposes of pregame invocations, it is clear that the School District was most interested in the fourth purpose served by the invocations. That is, the School District wanted to have invocations that publicly express support for Protestant Christianity. 18 The unmistakable message of the Supreme Court's teachings is that the state cannot employ a religious means to serve otherwise legitimate secular interests. Karen B. v. Treen, 653 F.2d 897, 901 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981), aff'd mem., 455 U.S. 913, 102 S.Ct. 1267, 71 L.Ed.2d 455 (1982). In choosing the equal access plan, the School District opted for an alternative that permits religious invocations, which by definition serve religious purposes, just like all public prayers. See Jaffree v. Wallace, 705 F.2d 1526, 1534 (11th Cir.1983) (Recognizing that prayer is the quintessential religious practice implies that no secular purpose can be satisfied....), aff'd, 472 U.S. 38, 105 S.Ct. 2479, 86 L.Ed.2d 29 (1985) (Jaffree I ). The School District's rejection of the alternative of wholly secular invocations makes it very clear that the School District's actual purpose in having pregame invocations was religious. Consequently, the equal access plan fails to survive the Lemon test. 19 The conclusion that an intrinsically religious practice cannot meet the secular purpose prong of the Lemon test finds support in other cases. In Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39, 101 S.Ct. 192, 66 L.Ed.2d 199 (1980), the Supreme Court held that Kentucky's statute requiring the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms had no secular purpose. The Kentucky legislature required the following notation in small print at the bottom of each copy of the Ten Commandments: The secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United States. Id. at 41, 101 S.Ct. at 193 (quoting Ky.Rev.Stat. Sec. 158.178 (1980)). Nonetheless, the Supreme Court held that [t]he pre-eminent purpose for posting the Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls is plainly religious in nature. The Ten Commandments are undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths, and no legislative recitation of a supposed secular purpose can blind us to that fact. Id. at 41, 101 S.Ct. at 194 (footnote omitted). Likewise, the facts in the present case demonstrate that, although the School District emphasized at trial the secular purposes behind the pregame invocations, the pre-eminent purpose behind having invocations was to endorse Protestant Christianity. This is prohibited by the Establishment Clause. See Abington School Dist. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 223, 83 S.Ct. 1560, 1572, 10 L.Ed.2d 844 (1963) (daily reading of Bible verses and Lord's Prayer in the public schools held unconstitutional, despite school district's assertion of such secular purposes as the promotion of moral values, the contradiction to the materialistic trends of our times, the perpetuation of our institutions and the teaching of literature); Graham v. Central Community School Dist., 608 F.Supp. 531, 535 (S.D.Iowa 1985) (striking down commencement invocation and benediction for lack of secular purpose). In light of the controlling case law and the nature of the challenged practice, we hold that, because the equal access plan fails to satisfy the first prong of the Lemon test, the plan violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
20 Even assuming, arguendo, that the equal access plan survives the first prong of the Lemon test, we would still find that the plan is facially unconstitutional because it fails the primary effect prong of the Lemon test. The effect prong asks whether, irrespective of government's actual purpose, the practice under review in fact conveys a message of endorsement or disapproval [of religion]. Jaffree II, 472 U.S. at 56 n. 42, 105 S.Ct. at 2489 n. 42 (quoting Lynch, 465 U.S. at 690, 104 S.Ct. at 1368 (O'Connor, J., concurring)). 21 In the present case, as noted above, the School District could satisfy its secular objectives by prescribing a strictly secular invocation. The equal access plan, however, permits religious invocations. When a religious invocation is given via a sound system controlled by school principals and the religious invocation occurs at a school-sponsored event at a school-owned facility, the conclusion is inescapable that the religious invocation conveys a message that the school endorses the religious invocation. See Jaffree I, 705 F.2d at 1534-35 (The primary effect of prayer is the advancement of ones religious beliefs.). This message becomes even clearer when the context of these pregame prayers is understood. In the past, pregame invocation speakers at the Douglas County High School, with very few exceptions, have been Protestant Christian ministers. In addition, Protestant Christianity is the majority religious preference in Douglas County. Therefore, the likely result of the equal access plan will be the continuation of Protestant Christian invocations, which have been delivered since 1947. Moreover, the equal access plan places those attending football games in the position of participating in a group prayer. Consequently, the plan violates the primary effect prong of the Lemon test. Accord Graham, 608 F.Supp. at 536 (invocation and benediction portions of defendant's commencement exercises have as their primary effect the advancement of the Christian religion).
22 On the face of the equal access plan, the School District is not entangled with religion at all. The School District does not monitor the content of the invocations, and the DCMA will no longer choose the invocation speakers or deliver the pregame prayers. Nonetheless, the lack of entanglement cannot save the equal access plan because the plan violates the first two prongs of the Lemon test.
23 The School District sets forth several arguments for distinguishing school prayer cases, claiming that these distinctions permit a finding that religious invocations at high school football games are constitutional. The School District first argues that the school prayer cases are not implicated here because pregame invocations occur outside the instructional environment of the classroom. This argument is meritless. Even though not occurring in the classroom, the invocations take place at a school-owned stadium during a school-sponsored event. In Doe v. Aldine Ind. School Dist., 563 F.Supp. 883 (S.D.Tex.1982), the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas rejected the argument that the School District asserts here. In Doe, a public high school sponsored extracurricular activities at which a prayer was sung. The defendants argued that the prayer did not violate the Establishment Clause because it occurred outside the classroom. The Doe court rejected this argument: 24 Pep rallies, football games, and graduation ceremonies are considered to be an integral part of the school's extracurricular program and as such provide a powerful incentive for students to attend.... [I]t is the Texas compulsory education machinery that draws the students to the school event and provides any audience at all for the religious activities.... Since these extracurricular activities were school sponsored and so closely identified with the school program, the fact that the religious activity took place in a nonreligious setting might create in a student's mind the impression that the state's attitude toward religion lacks neutrality. 25 Id. at 887 (citation omitted). The Doe court's reasoning applies equally well in the present case. 26 The School District next contends that football invocations do not invoke the teacher-student relationship, and are directed to a far less impressionable audience of adults and sixteen-to-eighteen year olds. However, the equal access plan does permit teachers to deliver religious invocations, thereby impacting on the teacher-student relationship. Furthermore, to persons of any age who do not believe in prayer, religious invocations permitted by the equal access plan convey the message that the state endorses religions believing in prayer and denigrates those religions that do not. If these prayers are delivered by authority figures, such as teachers, as is possible under the equal access plan, the message endorsing prayer becomes even stronger. 27 The School District argues further that the invocations are constitutional because they are given at public events at which attendance is entirely voluntary. Courts upholding invocations at graduation ceremonies have stressed that attendance is voluntary. See, e.g., Wood v. Mt. Lebanon Township School Dist., 342 F.Supp. 1293, 1294 (W.D.Pa.1972). However, the Supreme Court and this Court have not held that public prayer becomes constitutional when student participation is purely voluntary. See Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 430, 82 S.Ct. 1261, 1266-67, 8 L.Ed.2d 601 (1962) (Neither the fact that the prayer may be denominationally neutral nor the fact that its observance on the part of the students is voluntary can serve to free it from the limitations of the Establishment Clause); see also Karen B. v. Treen, 653 F.2d at 902. The School District attempts to distinguish these cases on the ground that they involved students who were compelled by law to be in attendance in the classrooms where prayer took place. The School District suggests that, because attendance at football games is voluntary, a constitutional violation is avoided. This argument lacks merit because whether the complaining individual's presence was voluntary is not relevant to the Establishment Clause analysis. Bell v. Little Axe Ind. School Dist. No. 70, 766 F.2d 1391, 1405 (10th Cir.1985). The Establishment Clause focuses on the constitutionality of the state action, not on the choices made by the complaining individual. 28 The School District's final attempt to distinguish the school prayer cases centers on the contention that the invocations constitute a de minimis violation of the Establishment Clause because they last 60 to 90 seconds. See Grossberg v. Deusebio, 380 F.Supp. 285, 290 (E.D.Va.1974) (no Establishment Clause violation from the brief periods allotted to the invocation and benediction contemplated as part of the graduation ceremony). This approach is flawed. It is no defense to urge that the religious practices here may be relatively minor encroachments on the First Amendment. Schempp, 374 U.S. at 225, 83 S.Ct. at 1573. The Establishment Clause does not focus on the amount of time an activity takes, but rather examines the religious character of the activity. See Hall v. Bradshaw, 630 F.2d 1018, 1021 (4th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 965, 101 S.Ct. 1480, 67 L.Ed.2d 613 (1981). As the Fourth Circuit recognized in Bradshaw, [a] prayer, because it is religious, does advance religion, and the limited nature of the encroachment does not free the state from the limitations of the Establishment Clause. Id. at 1021. 29 None of the arguments offered by the School District are persuasive in the present case. Each alleged distinction overlooks the single fact that a state or its subdivision cannot endorse or advance religion. Nor can a state use religious means to achieve secular purposes where, as here, secular means exist to achieve those purposes. 30 In short, the equal access plan is unconstitutional because it has a religious purpose and a primary effect of advancing religion. By using a purely secular invocation, the School District could avoid any problems of entanglement, fulfill its secular purposes, and not advance religion, thereby complying with the requirements of Lemon and its progeny. Because the School District rejected the alternative of a purely secular pregame speech, and instead adopted a plan which fails to satisfy the Lemon test, we hold that the equal access plan is unconstitutional on its face. 31