For decades, the City of Lakeland has opened its Commission meetings with prayers delivered by invited clergy. And for twenty-five years, these speakers were selected from a list containing clergy from exclusively Christian denominations; the invited Christian clergy typically delivered Christian prayers. After the plaintiffs complained in March 2010, the City expanded its list of invited clergy to include other denominations. Read more
In May 2011, we learned that the Medina Valley School District in Castroville, Texas intended to sponsor at least two student-led prayers at its upcoming high-school graduation. Read more
In May 2011, Indiana enacted the "Choice Scholarship Program," a program in which the State provides vouchers for Indiana schoolchildren to attend private schools, including religious schools. Participating schools may deny admission to students on the basis of religious practice or belief. And students may be required to receive religious instruction and attend religious services. Read more
For years, the Sussex County Council opened its public meetings with a Council member reciting the Lord's Prayer. Americans United wrote to the County Council in June 2008, and again in April 2009, asking the Council to stop opening its meetings with the Lord's Prayer because the Constitution prohibits legislative prayers used to advance one religion. The County did not respond to either letter. Read more
For years, the Greece Town Board has clergy to open the Board’s monthly meetings with a prayer. Over the past decade, all but two of the prayergivers have been Christian. Because the Town Board has neither suggested nor required that its speakers present prayers that are inclusive or nonsectarian, the vast majority of prayers have been explicitly Christian. Read more
For most of the past decade, the Elmbrook School District near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has held its high-school graduation ceremonies in the sanctuary of an evangelical Christian church. A cross towers over the dais--from where graduation speakers address the class and graduating seniors receive their diplomas. Read more
Starting in 2007, the Enfield Public Schools (located just north of Hartford, Connecticut) began holding the Schools’ two high-school graduations in the sanctuary of a Christian church, the First Cathedral. An enormous white cross sits atop the Cathedral’s roof, dominating the skyline as one approaches. To enter the building for graduations, students and their guests pass under another large cross in the Cathedral’s facade. Read more
In March 2011, the Douglas County Board of Education voted to create a “Pilot Choice Scholarship Plan,” through which the Douglas County School District has authorized 500 students to use state, per-pupil educational funds that are earmarked for the public school system as vouchers to attend private schools. Most of the participating “Private School Partners” are religious, and these participating schools may discriminate on the basis of religion in both hiring and admissions. Read more
The Florida Constitution prohibits the state from using taxpayer money to fund religious organizations or programs. During its 2011 session, the Florida legislature proposed an amendment to the Florida Constitution that not only would repeal this strict prohibition on public funding of religious institutions, but would also forbid Florida government bodies from denying public funding to religious institutions unless the U.S. Constitution prohibited the funding. The proposed amendment will become law if it is approved by Florida voters in the November 2012 general election. Read more
For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether and to what extent the First Amendment requires a "ministerial exception" to the federal employment-discrimination laws. A teacher at a religious school filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired after asserting her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Read more