Indiana student sues over school graduation prayer

So, this'll me my last input on the situation, because things started to get a little heated and personal on another thread, and I'd rather wrap it up than get steamed about some dumb Internet debate ...

There has been a lot of discussion on this thread about what "harm" the kid could have possibly been subjected to, and how it wasn't "hurting him," so he should have left well enough alone. I'm not quite sure that he was suffering any harm, or exactly thought he was, and that's OK.

I've read that the kid learned about the First Amendment in a civics class, and realized that what his school was conducting was illegal. I remember being that kid once upon a time, in Media Law as a sophomore or a junior in college. I knew about freedom of speech, press, religion, etc., etc., on some level, but when I learned why it was so valued in our country - the "marketplace of ideas," what it said about the national character that we protected subversive, unpopular ideas as vigorously as we do popular ones - it just blew my mind. I experienced that again following the "Game of Shadows" ordeal in the media. I have been experiencing it again as a law student taking constitutional law courses (my hope is to teach it some day).

This 18-year-old kid learned about the First Amendment in school, and apparently was so swept up by our values in this arena, that he was moved to do something about it himself. Would it have "hurt" him to listen to the prayer? Not physically, of course. But he learned about the Constitution, internalized its values, and could not stand idly by as they were diminished. The guarantee of freedom of religion isn't just some silly, arcane rule for sticklers, like driving 56 in a 55. It means something, and it's application has been reasoned thoroughly by some of the brightest minds we've ever produced and put to the test again and again and again. The courts think it means something. The founders thought it meant something. It moved this kid enough that he's willing to make himself the most unpopular kid in his state. Far from ostracizing him, I'd like to think his classmates will thank him some day.

 

Oh, law professors make good money. Six figures.

 

If the kid learned the first amendment so well, why does he ignore a major chunk of it?

 

Oy, vey.

 

The Constitution was made to protect the rights of real Americans, not illegals, weirdos, troublemakers and non-Christians.

 

Here is a fairly even-handed look at the issue:

http://www.jconline.com/article/20100323/NEWS04/3230325

The point made is that if the valedictorian elects to say something about God, Allah or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, no one can stop that person, based on the First Amendment. The issue is when the school advocates religion, such as by bringing a pastor in for an invocation, or sanctioning a student vote on whether prayer is allowed.

 

This.

 

That's probably the best way to handle it. But one has to wonder what's going to happen when a Muslim valedictorian wants to offer a prayer to Allah ... or a Buddhist prayer, or Hindu.

If giving a prayer at graduation is going to be a right, then it has to be applied equally. Somehow, I doubt that's going to happen.

 

Wow ... everybody on this board just talks out of their ass. It kind of reminds me of that scene in Goodwill Hunting when Ben Affleck goes to the job interview and uses big words, trying to impress interviwers, but he's really out of his league.

And the next time I attend a Yankees game, and they sing "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch, I'll be filing a lawsuit.

 

Public school, which you are required to attend, is no where in the same stratosphere as a baseball game.

 

Exactly. Maybe Gator was just showing us what some real talking out the ass is like.

 

The lack of civics knowledge by people who presumably college-educated people is astounding and frightening.