As I posted last week, today the entire 5th Circuit will re-hear the case involving the Tangipahoa, LA school board's desire to open meetings with prayer. Earlier a 3-judge panel issued 3 different opinions in affirming a lower court's throwing out the prayers as unconstitutional. Now, both sides of the case are looking for clarification, as the deciding judge's opinion left the possibility that non-sectarian prayers might still be allowed, even as the school board's previous practice had been clearly denied by the panel.
The issue is a tangle only a lawyer would appreciate, but seems to hinge on this: do school board meetings qualify for the same kind of leeway offered to legislative sessions, which the Supreme Court has said (in Marsh) may invoke God in a ceremonial, non-sectarian way? In the panel decision, one judge said yes it qualifies so the prayers are fine. One judge said no it doesn't – a school board is not a legislature. And the third said, essentially, the prayers were too sectarian to be allowed anyway, so I don't have to decide if Marsh applies here. (read my earlier post for excerpts from each judge's opinion)
The problem is–if Marsh applies then presumably non-sectarian prayers could be allowed just as in legislative sessions. If it does not, then the standard Lemon test would apply and no prayers would be allowed. The Court will be unraveling that issue today. I'll keep you posted. Louisiana's The Advocate has this story.
