Every spring, atheists seek to remove God from public school graduation; and every year Liberty Counsel acts to ensure that prayer and religious viewpoints are not suppressed during these ceremonies. As such, Liberty Counsel is launching its 14th annual “Friend or Foe” Graduation Prayer Campaign. This campaign serves to protect religious viewpoints at graduation. Liberty Counsel seeks to educate and, if necessary, litigate to ensure that prayer and religious viewpoints are not suppressed during graduation ceremonies and also throughout the year.
“The key to expressing any religious viewpoint in public school, including graduation prayer, is that the school should remain neutral—neither commanding nor prohibiting it,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “If the school allows a variety of viewpoints but bans religious viewpoints at graduation, that is hostility to religion and unconstitutional. Students do not lose their constitutional right to free speech when they step to the podium at graduation.”
Liberty Counsel has long been on the forefront of defending religious liberty in the public schools. In a precedent-setting case against the ACLU that went all the way to the Supreme Court, Adler v. Duval County School Board, Liberty Counsel defended the right of students to pray or give religious messages at graduation.
The case established the legal principle that public schools are free to adopt a policy that permits students or other speakers to present secular or religious messages, including prayer, at commencement ceremonies. Students are encouraged to wear Liberty Counsel’s red “I WILL PRAY” wristbands as a reminder to pray.
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