Court Opinion

ID: 9481529
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:21:53.304565+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:22.816010
License: Public Domain

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge,
with whom BARKSDALE, Circuit Judge, joins specially concurring.
The district court applied the tripartite test of Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971), and upheld the school district’s policy. Appellants do not argue that some other test should be applied, but rather contend'that Lemon controls and that the policy fails to meet Lemon’s requirements. Appellees defend the policy under Lemon and also rely on Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 103 S.Ct. 3330, 77 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1983). Judge Reavley’s opinion convincingly demonstrates that Lemon is satisfied, and we completely agree. Moreover, in the present context, it seems apparent that Lemon poses the challenged policy’s highest hurdle, and if it clears Lemon then it passes establishment clause muster under any reasonably conceivable test. Accordingly, we join in so much of Judge Reavley’s opinion as deals with whether the policy is constitutional under Lemon, but without reaching the question of whether some less restrictive or rigid test might be more properly applied in this setting.1 That is a matter on which the Supreme Court may well further enlighten us before long. See Weisman v. Lee, 908 F.2d 1090 (1st Cir.1990), cert. granted - U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1305, 113 L.Ed.2d 240 (1991).

. In Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 1355, 1362, 79 L.Ed.2d 604 (1984), the Court observed that "we have repeatedly emphasized our unwillingness to be confined to any single test or criteria in this sensitive area.” There are good arguments why a case of this kind might be better analyzed under Marsh, or some variant thereof, than under Lemon. See Jager v. Douglas County School District, 862 F.2d 824, 836-838 (11th Cir.1989) (dissenting opinion of Chief Judge Roney); Stein v. Plainwell Community Schools, 822 F.2d 1406, 1409-10, 1412-15 (6th Cir.1987) (opinions of Judges Merritt and Wellford); Weisman v. Lee, 908 F.2d 1090, 1098-99 (1st Cir.1990) (dissenting opinion of Judge Campbell), cert. granted - U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1305, 113 L.Ed.2d 240 (1991). It also appears to us that the force of certain of our precedents in this area, particularly Lubbock Civil Liberties Union v. Lubbock Independent School District, 669 F.2d 1038 (5th Cir.), reh’g denied, 680 F.2d 424 (1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1155, 103 S.Ct. 800, 74 L.Ed.2d 1003 (1983), may have been called into question by Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens, - U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2356, 2366, 2370-73, 110 L.Ed.2d 191 (1990). Where that might lead were the policy at issue here somewhat different likewise need not be reached.