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Lee v. Weisman

Lee v. Weisman
Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg
Argued November 6, 1991
Decided June 24, 1992
Full case name Robert E. Lee, Individually and as Principal of Nathan Bishop Middle School, et al., Petitioners v. Daniel Weisman etc.
Citations 505 U.S. 577 (more)
112 S. Ct. 2649; 120 L. Ed. 2d 467; 1990 U.S. LEXIS 4364; 60 U.S.L.W. 4723; 92 Cal. Daily Op. Service 5448; 92 Daily Journal DAR 8669
Prior history Respondents' motion for temporary restraining order to prevent invocation from being delivered denied, District Court for the District of Rhode Island (1990); Appealed after graduation ceremony, decision reversed, Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990)
Holding
Including a clergy-led prayer within the events of a public high school graduation violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Court membership
Case opinions
Majority Kennedy, joined by Blackmun, Stevens, O'Connor, Souter
Concurrence Blackmun, joined by Stevens, O'Connor
Concurrence Souter, joined by Stevens, O'Connor
Dissent Scalia, joined by Rehnquist, White, Thomas
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court decision regarding school prayer. It was the first major school prayer case decided by the Rehnquist Court. It ruled that schools may not sponsor clerics to conduct even non-denominational prayer. The Court followed a broad interpretation of the Establishment Clause that had been standard for decades at the nation's highest court, a reaffirmation of the principles of such landmark cases as Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) and Abington v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963).

Robert E. Lee was the principal of Nathan Bishop Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island. He invited a Jewish rabbi to deliver a prayer at the 1989 graduation ceremony, but the parents of student Deborah Weisman requested a temporary injunction to bar the rabbi from speaking. The question being reviewed was whether or not this was constitutional. The Rhode Island district court denied the Weismans' motion. The family did attend the graduation ceremony, and the rabbi did deliver the benediction.

The Weismans continued their litigation after the graduation and won a victory at the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The school district appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the prayer was nonsectarian and was doubly voluntary: Deborah was free not to stand for the prayer and because participation in the ceremony itself was not required. Arguments were heard on November 6, 1991. Justice Anthony Kennedy had been critical of the Court's decisions on school prayer, and many court watchers thought that he would provide the crucial fifth vote to reverse the lower court's ruling and deal a major blow to the twin separationist pillars of Engel and Abington.

The 5–4 decision was announced on June 24, 1992. It was somewhat surprising as a victory for the Weismans and a defeat for the school district. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, which maintained previous Supreme Court precedents sharply limiting the place of religion within the nation's public schools—far from joining those who favored curtailing restrictions on school prayers. The Blackmun papers reveal that Kennedy switched his vote during the deliberations, as he also did in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (505 U.S. 833 (1992)), saying that his draft majority opinion upholding the prayer exercise "looked quite wrong." Instead, Kennedy wrote an opinion that repudiated the school district's main arguments. He found fault with Principal Lee's decision to give the rabbi who was planning to offer the graduation invocation a pamphlet on composing prayers for civic occasions:


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