ACLJ Wins Battle With ACLU Over Free Speech for Students in Alabama.

Business Editors & Legal Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 18, 2001

The American Center for Law and Justice, an international public interest law firm, said today it is pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request by the ACLU to hear an Alabama case.

The Supreme Court action leaves in place a federal appeals court decision that upholds student-initiated religious speech as constitutional in DeKalb County, Alabama.

"This is a critical victory for free speech and for religious liberty," said Walter M. Weber, Senior Litigation Counsel of the ACLJ. "By not taking this case, the Supreme Court has let stand an important federal precedent. In this case, the federal appeals court ruled that student-led and student-initiated prayer and other religious speech is still constitutionally protected in this country. The federal appeals court held that schools may not censor out all student religious expression from the halls of our nation's public schools."

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied - without comment - a petition filed by the ACLU to hear the Alabama case. This brings to conclusion four years of legal appeals in the case of Chandler v. Siegelman.

In February 1996, the ACLU filed suit in federal court in Alabama claiming two school districts engaged in unconstitutional religious practices. In October 1997, U.S. District Court Judge Ira DeMent issued a permanent injunction forbidding the DeKalb County schools from engaging in various religious activities. The injunction also ordered school officials to stop students from engaging in certain religious speech. The later part of the injunction went too far, a federal appeals court ruled in response to an ACLJ appeal.

In October 2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reaffirmed its earlier finding that Judge DeMent's injunction was unconstitutional, notwithstanding a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down as unconstitutional student prayer at a high school football game in Sante Fe, Texas.

Alabama Attorney General William Pryor had appointed ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow as Deputy Attorney General in the case. Sekulow presented the oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit in Montgomery in December 1998 challenging Judge DeMent's injunction.

The American Center for Law and Justice is an international public interest law firm and educational organization that specializes in constitutional issues and religious liberty cases. The ACLJ is headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA and its web site address is www.aclj.org.