A divided panel of the 7th Circuit has upheld a Wisconsin school district's practice of holding graduation ceremonies in a church, despite arguments that the arrangement forces students to engage Christian artifacts and perspectives. AP reports:
[Judge Kenneth] Ripple and Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook rejected the plaintiffs’ contention that holding graduation in the church constitutes the government coercing religious participation. Graduates weren’t forced to participate in any religious exercise, Ripple wrote. As for the religious environment, the U.S. Constitution doesn’t shield someone from encountering others’ religious beliefs and symbols, he said.
“The encounter with religion here is purely passive and incidental to attendance at an entirely secular ceremony,” he wrote.
In dissent, Judge Flaum argued the activity does convey the government's endorsement of religion
In this case, high school students and their younger siblings were exposed to graduation ceremonies that put a spiritual capstone on an otherwise secular education. Literally and figuratively towering over the graduation proceedings in the church’s sanctuary space was a 15- to 20-foot tall Latin cross, the pre-eminent symbol of Christianity. That symbol “carries deeply significant meaning for those who adhere to the Christian faith.” Moreover, it is a symbol that invites veneration by adherents.
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Once the school district creates a captive audience, the coercion inherent in endorsement can operate. When a student who holds minority (or no) religious beliefs observes classmates at a graduation event taking advantage of Elmbrook Church’s offerings or meditating on its symbols (or posing for pictures in front of them) or speaking with its staff members, “[t]he law of imitation operates,” and may create subtle pressure to honor the day in a similar manner. The only way for graduation attendees to avoid the dynamic is to leave the ceremony. That is a choice…the establishment clause does not force students to make.
How important is it to you that a graduation ceremony takes place in the shadow of a tall cross?
The school district has since moved graduation ceremonies to another location. This ruling affirms an earlier decision by the trial court.
