Written by Don Byrd
A sharply divided 7th Circuit yesterday ruled a Wisconsin school district’s practice of holding commencement in a Wisconsin church unconstitutional. Noting that the opinion was driven by the particular facts of the case, and not a critique of other situations in which courts have reached the opposite conclusion, the Appeals Court said here there was an “unacceptable amount of religious endorsement and coercion.”
Here is a sample of the problems the court found:
To reach the sanctuary, visitors must pass through the Church lobby, which also has served as a natural congregation point for graduates and their guests after past graduation ceremonies. The lobby contains tables and stations filled with evangelical literature, much of which addresses children and teens, and religious banners, symbols and posters decorate the walls.9 In the middle of the lobby is a large, circular desk displaying pamphlets such as “{young adults},” “{couples ministry},” “{middle school ministry},” “{high school ministry}” and “{college ministry}.”
The District admits that Church members manned information booths that contained religious literature during the 2009 graduation, and a DVD recording of the 2002 ceremony shows people staffing these tables. The District also admits that during the 2002 ceremony, “Church members passed out religious literature in the lobby” although neither the District nor the Does divulge further details about how the distribution took place or at whose behest. According to Doe 1, when he attended his older sibling’s graduation, “[m]embers of the church, instead of school officials, handed out graduation materials during the ceremony.”
Graduation in church is a delicate operation, and courts have reached different outcomes depending on the circumstances. Not unlike their approach to posting the Ten Commandments at government facilities, there is a right time and a wrong time to resort to using a church building; and a right way and a wrong way to do it once there.
Here, the 7th Circuit decided not for all graduations and all churches but for the particular use of Elmbrook Church by the school district. Churches may be used when necessary for such an event, but must not exploit the occasion for proselytizing and coercion – a reasonable balance.
