-Caveat Lector- And they start 'em young in LA
>From NewsDay }}}>Begin http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-school- prayer1211dec11.story Court Rules on La. School Prayer By ALAN SAYRE Associated Press Writer December 11, 2001, 4:09 PM EST NEW ORLEANS -- A federal appeals court Tuesday declared unconstitutional Louisiana's school prayer law, which evolved from allowing a moment of silent meditation in 1976 to permitting spoken prayer in public classrooms. A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 3-0 to uphold a judge's 1999 ruling striking the law down. The state had asked the appeals court to reinstate the law. A 1976 Louisiana law initially allowed for silent meditation. It was amended in 1992 to include the word "prayer" and again in 1999 to remove the word "silent." The mother of a ninth-grader sued the Ouachita Parish School Board because students had made fun of her son and another boy who did not participate in prayer, calling them "atheist" and "devil worshipper." In striking down the Louisiana law, U.S. District Judge Robert James rejected the state's contention that the statute is "neutral" toward religion. The appeals court agreed. A week after James' ruling, the school board voted to stop student-led prayers over the intercom at West Monroe High School in a settlement reached with the American Civil Liberties Union. In a historic 1961 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said that organized school prayer violates the separation of church and state. "Once again, the Louisiana Legislature has passed an unconstitutional law, resulting in local governments, in this case a school board, spending money that could have been better used to educate our children," said Joe Co ok, executive director of the Louisiana ACLU. "The purpose of the Legislature was to defy Supreme Court rulings of long standing." The state attorney general's office said it has not decided how to proceed. It could appeal to the full 5th Circuit or the Supreme Court. On Monday, the high court rejected an appeal from a Florida high school student who objected to his school's policy of letting the senior class pick a classmate to deliver a religious message at graduation. Copyright � 2001, The Associated Press End<{{{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it." 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