Posted on 08/14/2003 6:11:55 AM PDT by Brian S
By LARRY O'DELL Associated Press Writer RICHMOND, Va.
An evenly divided federal appeals court refused Wednesday to reconsider a ruling that group prayers said before evening meals at Virginia Military Institute are unconstitutional.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 6-6 vote leaves intact a three-judge panel's ruling that the state-supported military college's traditional prayers, although nondenominational and voluntary, violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
"Put simply, VMI's supper prayer exacts an unconstitutional toll on the consciences of religious objectors," the panel said in its unanimous ruling in April.
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, said it was too early to say whether the state will appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kilgore had asked for the rehearing.
"This was a close call, but we hope it ends here," said Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which filed the lawsuit challenging the prayers in May 2001 on behalf of two VMI cadets who have since graduated.
U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon and the three-judge panel "properly interpreted the principle of separation of church and state to mean that state colleges, much like secondary and primary public schools, cannot organize a religious exercise and force students to participate," Willis said.
The order denying a rehearing by the full court was accompanied by three dissenting opinions. None of the judges voting on the prevailing side explained their reasons for denying a rehearing.
"With all due respect to the panel, its ruling goes too far," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in one dissent. "The supper prayer at Virginia Military Institute is the most benign form of religious observance."
Wilkinson said he disagreed with the panel's finding that VMI's emphasis on conformity pressures cadets to participate in a religious exercise.
"If this same observance took place in a primary or secondary school setting, I would regard it in a much different light," Wilkinson wrote. "But I doubt that cadets who are deemed ready to vote, to fight for our country, and to die for our freedoms, are so impressionable that they will be coerced by a brief, nonsectarian supper prayer."
Judge H. Emory Widener Jr. said government has sanctioned other religious rituals and symbols, including a sculpture of Moses with the Ten Commandments _ "the most flagrantly religious document of Judeo-Christian religion" _ on a wall of the Supreme Court building.
VMI stopped the prayers after Moon ruled them unconstitutional in January 2002.
Evening prayers had been a tradition at VMI since at least the 1950s, except for about five years in the early 1990s, when cadets did not all eat dinner together.
Every night, cadets marched into the mess hall in formation in an exercise known as "supper roll call." Before they were served, a member of the corps would read a prayer.
Cadets were not required to bow their heads or stand at attention during the prayer. They were allowed to leave the mess hall or stand at ease, lawyers for the state said.
"An adult possessing the disciplined willpower demonstrated by the cadets at VMI, standing in silence while a short prayer is read, is not forced to engage in any act of worship contrary to his or her beliefs," Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote in a third dissent Wednesday.
Other dissenting judges were Michael J. Luttig, Karen Williams and Dennis Shedd.
Voting against rehearing the case were Chief Judge William Wilkins and Judges M. Blane Michael, Dianna Gribbon Motz, William B. Traxler, Robert King and Roger D. Gregory.
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On the Net:
Virginia Military Institute: http://www.vmi.edu
4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov
Just thought I would see what the opinion looked like from the other side of the fence.
Reached in Hell, Karl Marx and Josef Stalin could only chuckle.
James Madison's only reply was 'My Lord, we never intended such a thing!'
The ceremonial aspect of the military is an important aspect of socializing cadets to the "culture" of the military.
VMI is preparing cadets for the military. The prayers are said by "acting" and "actual" chaplains.
Conclusion: This is a valid exercise preparing cadets for the culture of the military.
Signed
Xzins
Chaplain(Retired) US Army
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