Football Prayer Kicked Off The Field In Texas By Federal Appeals Court.

Public school students may choose to "solemnize" a graduation ceremony with a prayer but cannot do so at football games, a federal appeals court has ruled.

In an opinion released March 1, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said football games are different because they do not share the "singularly serious nature of graduation."

The dispute arose in the Santa Fe, Texas, Independent School District, where two anonymous parents filed suit against the district in 1995, claiming that prayers before football games violated the separation of church and state.

The school district, in defending the prayers, also asked the court to overturn restrictions from a previous ruling that say graduation prayers must be "nonsectarian" and "non-proselytizing." In 1996 U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent approved football game prayers, as long as they met those conditions.

The appeals court disagreed in part. Although it allowed "non-sectarian" prayer at graduations led by students, it threw out football game prayers entirely. "The prayers are to be delivered at football games -- hardly the sober type of annual event that can be appropriately solemnized with prayer," wrote Judge Jacques Wiener for the 2-1 majority.

Dissenting Judge Grady Jolly criticized the majority for its "remarkable holding" that "for the most curious reasons, the First Amendment allows speech at graduation ceremonies but bars speech at sporting events."

The school district is considering appealing the Doe v. Santa Fe Independent School District case to the U.S. Supreme Court.