Among today's bill introductions, there's HF1771, the Student Religious Liberties Act, chief author Duane Quam (R-Byron).
The bill appears to be a copycat of a new law passed by Mississippi's legislature in the session that just concluded. Governor Phil Bryant signed it into law. While most of the bill asserts student rights regularly upheld by the courts, the final section has proven to be the most controversial: declaring certain occasions like morning announcements and athletic events "limited public forums" and allowing voluntary student-led prayer to take place.
Legal challenges are anticipated in Mississippi.
On March 16, the Associated Press reported in Mississippi gives religion special status in its schools:
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill Thursday that could lead to student-led prayer over school intercoms or at graduations or sporting events. The American Civil Liberties Union said the measure, which becomes law July 1, is likely to prompt a lawsuit in the school year that begins in August. . . .
Bear Atwood, legal director for ACLU of Mississippi, did not attend the bill signing ceremony but told The Associated Press in a phone interview that she thinks the law "has serious constitutional issues." She said the ACLU will wait to see if there's proselytizing in public schools before deciding whether to file a lawsuit.
"At the end of the day, do I think there will be a legal challenge?" Atwood said. "Yes, which is unfortunate because it is not the governor or the Legislature that will get sued but the individual school district and that's not a very good way for them to spend their limited education dollars -- especially given that this is a pretty well-settled area of law." . . .
The law also specifies that students are allowed to express religious beliefs in their class assignments and are free to organize religious groups on campus. Atwood said it's already "well-established constitutional law" that students have the right to do those things and to wear clothing with religious expression or gather around a public school flagpole to pray.
"There's plenty of guidance for schools," Atwood said. "This bill is about trying to end-run the Constitution so there can be prayer over the loudspeaker during the school day and school assemblies and sporting events and graduations ... Students have the right to engage in voluntary prayer as long as it's not disruptive to the school environment, which is the same as all of their First Amendment rights."
Since the law has passed, local school leaders have been unsure of prayer law's effects, the Daily Leader of SW Mississippi reports:
Local school administrators don't seem eager to embrace the law, however.
Beset by an ongoing ACLU spotlight on West Lincoln Attendance Center and recurrent incidents of prayers at athletic events, Lincoln County Superintendent Terry Brister fears the new law will only trap schools between conflicting guidelines.
"It's going to cause a lot of conflict because our state government says we can, but we've got the Supreme Court and the federal laws holding us on the other end," Brister said.
Perhaps even more difficult to navigate, Brister believes the law may increase the competing demands on districts from often highly religious communities and a litigious ACLU: Residents within districts may feel emboldened by the state law to push for increased prayer while the ACLU may be increasingly vigilant.
"It puts a lot of pressure on us as school leaders," Brister said.
The Brookhaven School District isn't in any great hurry to get in line behind the new law, either. . . .
The Mississippi law appears to have been generated by repeated instances of football game prayer, the Daily Leader notes:
Bear Atwood, of the Mississippi ACLU, has questioned the constitutionally of the new Mississippi law.
In the 2000 Supreme Court ruling, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court found unconstitutional a Texas school's policy allowing student-led prayers before a football game.
School prayers before football games at Lincoln County schools have been an ongoing source of contention. In the fall of 2011, every school district in Mississippi received a letter from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation outlining U.S. Supreme Court rulings on prayer at public school athletic events.
Despite these origins in the gridiron of the buckle of the Bible Belt, Bluestem suspects that we'll see the Quam bill framed in terms of same-sex marriage. However, the bill is redundant, since the courts have upheld student First Amendment rights.
Public prayers, however voluntary, are a different matter--and would likely invite additional court costs to school districts should the bill pass. It should, however, make for one heck of a victimization narrative for Republicans to campaign on next year, especially if the freedom to marry becomes law.
So far there's no companion bill in the state senate, which doesn't face re-election until 2016.
Photo: See You at the Pole prayers, organized by student religious clubs, already enjoy First Amendment protections.
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