Court Opinion

ID: 9480591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:52:19.747069+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:46.777918
License: Public Domain

CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
As Judge Torruella states, Chief Judge Boyle’s opinion for the district court is indeed “sound and pellucid,” in that it expresses well what may be the Supreme Court’s ultimate view in this confused area of the law. I say “may.” As indicated below, I prefer another view but am aware that the district court’s position may be more in keeping with Supreme Court consensus.
I am less amenable to Judge Bownes’ reasoning. His seems to me an extreme position, especially his view that a benediction would offend the First Amendment even if a deity were not even mentioned. Judge Bownes would apparently strike down the benediction suggested by the district court (which uses the same words as the challenged prayer, but omits all references to God). That version reads in part, as follows: “For the legacy of America where diversity is celebrated and the rights of minorities are protected we are thank-ful_ May our aspirations for our country and for these young people, who are our hope for the future, be richly fulfilled.” See Weisman v. Lee, 728 F.Supp. at 74-75, n. 10. It is difficult to see why this would violate the Establishment Clause. The First Amendment prohibits the making of a law “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” What is there so religious about expressing thanks for diversity and for the protection of minority rights? Is Thanksgiving a forbidden rite? Must courts outlaw the public reading of Walt Whitman or Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”?
*1098These extreme views of my colleague suggest the problems that inhere in banning invocations — including those that mention a deity. By so doing we deprive people of an uplifting message that seems especially suitable for a rite of passage like a graduation, where those present wish to give deeply felt thanks. Our First Amendment jurisprudence normally protects speech rather than suppressing it. It seems anomalous to outlaw Rabbi Gutter-man’s tolerant, benign, nonsectarian supplication — a message so entirely appropriate in that setting, and surely inoffensive to virtually all of those present.*
If one were to ask people what are the problems of our time, they would hardly respond that our youth and their parents are being corrupted by over-exposure to noble aspirations of this character. The common complaints are that 13 year old children are selling crack; that instead of doing homework, students are watching violent TV; that the tolerant ideals mentioned by the rabbi are being rejected in favor of destructive habits of mind and character. So what good, one might ask, is accomplished by preventing an invocation like this?
The answer, of course, is that we are also concerned to preserve the separation of church and state — a fundamental tenet of our Constitution, the benefits of which are undisputed. One need only look at Lebanon, Iran, and Northern Ireland to see what evils this tenet seeks to avoid.
Yet the question remains, is it necessary — to preserve separation of church and state — to prevent benedictions and invocations of this generous, inclusive sort? There is a tradition of such remarks at public functions going back to the Founders. See Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 103 S.Ct. 3330, 77 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1983) (sustaining prayer at opening of state legislature’s session). It seems unreasonable to say that Marsh applies only to state legislative sessions. One would expect it to cover other public meetings. If so, it may extend to a graduation ceremony like this. See Stein v. Plainwell Community Schools, 822 F.2d 1406 (6th Cir.1987) (upholding nonsectarian prayers at a public school graduation). Chief Judge Boyle, nonetheless rejected the Stein and the Marsh analogy. He not only felt that Marsh was strictly limited to a legislative session, he also believed that prayer at a graduation ceremony was more analogous to prohibited school prayer than to prayer at a legislative session. He further feared church-state entanglement if courts must determine what prayers are nonsectarian enough to pass muster.
I am troubled most by Chief Judge Boyle’s last point. Still, it seems reasonably simple to separate out sectarian from nonsectarian utterances. I suspect that most Americans of all persuasions — including the increasing numbers who adhere to religions or ethical systems outside the Ju-deo-Christian framework — find it is appro*1099priate and meaningful for public speakers to invoke the deity not as an expression of a particular sectarian belief but as an expression of transcendent values and of the mystery and idealism so absent from much of modern culture.
I think that Marsh and Stein provide a reasonable basis for a rule allowing invocations and benedictions on public, ceremonial occasions, provided authorities have a well-defined program for ensuring, on a rotating basis, that persons representative of a wide range of beliefs and ethical systems are invited to give the invocation. The rule should make provision not only for representatives of the Judeo-Christian religions to give the invocation, but for representatives of other religions and of nonreligious ethical philosophies to do so. In some years, lay persons who do not represent any organized religion or philosophy might be asked to give a nonreligious invocation. The possibility exists, of course, that a particular audience might occasionally be exposed to a prayer redolent of a particular religious tradition, but the next year a different invocation would be given — perhaps by an agnostic. In brief, I think the First Amendment values are more richly and satisfactorily served by inclusiveness than by barring altogether a practice most people wish to have preserved.
It appears, both from the sensitivity of the delivered prayer and the nonsectarian guidelines drawn up by the Assistant Superintendent, that the Providence School Committee went some distance to ensure that different faiths were included and that prayers were nonsectarian. It may be, however, that even more needs to be done, to ensure not only that the state does not identify itself with a particular religion but with religion generally. If so, I would simply require the Committee to broaden its rules as above suggested, and, otherwise, to continue to permit invocations and benedictions of diverse character at high school and middle school graduations.

 Rabbi Gutterman’s invocation reads, in its entirety, as follows:
God of the Free, Hope of the Brave:
For the legacy of America where diversity is celebrated and the rights of minorities are protected, we thank You. May these young men and women grow up to enrich it.
For the liberty of America, we thank You. May these new graduates grow up to guard it.
For the political process of America in which all its citizens may participate, for its court system where all can seek justice we thank You. May those we honor this morning always turn to it in trust.
For the destiny of America we thank You. May the graduates of Nathan Bishop Middle School so live that they help to share it.
May our aspirations for our country and for these young people, who are our hope for the future, be richly fulfilled. AMEN.
The Rabbi’s benediction reads as follows:
O God, we are grateful to You for having endowed us with the capacity for learning which we have celebrated on this joyous commencement.
Happy families give thanks for seeing their children achieve an important milestone. Send Your blessings upon the teachers and administrators who helped prepare them.
The graduates now need strength and guidance for the future. Help them to understand that we are not complete with academic knowledge alone. We must each strive to fulfill what You require of us all: To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly.
We give thanks to You, Lord, for keeping us alive, sustaining us and allowing us to reach this special, happy occasion. AMEN.