Indiana student sues over school graduation prayer

In risking giving Junkie more ammo, though he's (imo) going on his own personal behavior more than a strict definition...
from Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: 1prayer
Pronunciation: \ˈprer\
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French priere, praiere, preiere, from Medieval Latin precaria, from Latin, feminine of precarius obtained by entreaty, from prec-, prex
Date: 14th century

1 a (1) : an address (as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought <said a prayer for the success of the voyage> (2) : a set order of words used in praying b : an earnest request or wish

So the second definition is an earnest request or wish. But I'm willing to bet that's been a recent change in the students'/school's definition of what they were planning to do in order to keep it in the program once they realized what they were doing was unconstitutional. Trying to avoid the suit.

 

Right IJAG, except judges and courts usually look to the ordinary meaning of a word if the meaning is in dispute and important to the outcome.

So finding an alternative meaning that isn't the one that is commonly accepted doesn't usually help. And in this case, I don't think it would since most of us take the ordinary meaning of "prayer" to be a prayer to God or gods.

That said, some judges (i.e. Scalia) will scour multiple dictionaries to find a meaning of a word that suits their needs. So it's possible.

 

I saw a response from Waylon that has since been removed. Among other things, it said Judge Sarah Evans Barker is handling the case. If that's so, I doubt this controversy lasts very long. She's an excellent judge and has a solid history of keeping government from overstepping its bounds when it comes to the First Amendment.

 

In God We Trust our country was built on it.

 

Thanks for clarifying that, Yoda. Perhaps you should learn to write in coherent sentences before you chime in on a thread related to education.

 

This is obviously not a thread related to education this is a thread related to politics and religious preference.

 

Well, there is a school graduation involved and keeping religion out of public schools is very much a part of the issue, so there is an element of education involved as well. Comprehension problems and mangled grammar. What a combination!

 

Uh, no. That didn't become popular until about 100 years after the country was founded.

 

Don't forget the stealing of land from the Indians and slavery. The country was built on that, too.

 

That's not true. The country was not built on slavery. Slavery was more like the drywall and flooring. It helped get the job done after the foundation was laid.