James, Pryor accused of playing politics with prayer
by Dana Beyerle
Montgomery BureauMONTGOMERY — The plaintiff in the DeKalb County school prayer case accused Gov. Fob James and Attorney General Bill Pryor of playing politics after refusing an offer to amend part of a federal judge's injunction.
"This is about re-election, folks," Pamela Sumners, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said.
Sumners agreed to change objectionable parts of U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent's Oct. 29 order in the prayer case but was rebuffed by lawyers for James and the state.
"I offered to modify two particular phrases, and they turned me down flat and said 'We're appealing,'" Sumners said. "This is our tax dollars at work."
Deputy Attorney General Richard Allen defended Pryor's decision to appeal part of DeMent's injunction to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Bill Pryor does not make decisions based on political reasons," Allen said. "He makes decisions based on facts and the law."
The phrases Sumners agreed to change would have softened the circumstances under which students could exercise religious activities in DeKalb County schools.
Sumners said she suspects other motives in James and Pryor's refusal to compromise.
"If you say you're concerned about student rights and an overture is rejected, there is no other reason than politics," Sumners said.
Pryor hired an outside law firm, the American Center for Law and Justice, at no charge to appeal parts of DeMent's order. Pryor did not appeal DeMent's March ruling, which overturned Alabama's student-led prayer law.
Stuart Roth, chairman of the ACLJ in Mobile, said he does not believe that Sumner's offer would have changed DeMent's injunction enough to make a difference.
"She just wants to look at only two points," Roth said.
Roth said the state is asking only for a partial stay on narrow issues involving free-speech rights of students in DeKalb County, where DeMent left detailed instructions concerning religious activities.
Sumners told Roth the parties are not going to agree on the general student-initiated-prayer issue. But, Sumners said, they could try to agree to further identify "officially sanctioned" events for students that would not violate church-and-state separation issues.
* * * Sumners also took issue with a Monday press conference Pryor held with state school Superintendent Ed Richardson to outline the do's and don'ts of school prayer.
Sumners said the list of approved activities for students is exactly the same as the allowed activities DeMent culled from 30 years of law and Supreme Court rulings concerning bans on officially sanctioned religious activities in public schools.
Richardson said school officials needed to know what type of plays or musical performances they could hold after two school districts said they would cancel any Christmas activities because of DeMent's ruling.
"DeMent is not the grinch who stole Christmas," Sumners said.
DeMent said students can engage in silent prayer, distribute religious information, wear religious symbols or announce religious events, as long as similar activities of a non-religious nature are allowed. He ruled that school officials cannot lead or allow religious activities, however.
"Politics, politics and politics explain why the attorney general tells citizens that his 'guidelines,' identical to the principles and sometimes the language of Judge DeMent's injunction, are different from the 'unconstitutional' order of Judge DeMent," Sumners said.
The Tuscaloosa News, Sunday December 14, 1997
Moore: Remember 'In God We Trust?'
By Lee Ann Smith
Eagle Staff WriterTROY — Etowah County Circuit Judge Roy Moore watches as the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court begin sessions with prayer.
He looks on as the president of the United States takes the oath of office with his hand on the Bible.
"But our children," Moore says, "can't pray in school."
Moore has gained national attention in his fight to keep the 10 Commandments on display in his courtroom and open his sessions in prayer. He was sued in 1995 by the American Civil Liberties Union for his actions.
Moore appealed the case to the Alabama Supreme Court on Dec. 30, 1996.
"How can our children be forbidden to pray in school when we are a people who profess 'In God We Trust?'" Moore asked during a Thursday speaking engagement in Troy. "It's not only on our money in our pocket, it's our national motto declared by law in 1956. We are one nation under God."
Believing in the right of religious freedoms, Moore said he disagrees with federal court judge Ira DeMent, who barred school-organized or officially sanctioned religious activities in DeKalb County schools.
"I agree with the governor of this state 110 percent," Moore said. Gov. Fob James has said repeatedly that prayer in school is a state issue, not a decision for the federal courts....
The Dothan Eagle, Sunday December 14, 1997
Nativity scene closes traditional Christmas show
by Joey Bunch
Staff ReporterBON SECOUR — Angels flanked Joseph and Mary as they admired the Baby Jesus in the manger Tuesday night, just as kindergarten actors have portrayed them for more than 50 years here at Swift School.
Though it focused a statewide controversy and brought all the regional media to the schools' annual Christmas pageant, the Nativity scene held the spotlight for barely two minutes near the middle of the 90-minute program.
"I'm glad it was in there," said Wanda Findley, whose grandson was in the pageant. "It could have been longer, but I still think this was one of the best shows we've ever had.
Some residents of this close-knit south Baldwin County community had thought the closing curtain had fallen on the annual Nativity scene after a federal judge's ruling in October prohibited "school-organized or officially sanctioned religious activity."
Baldwin County school Superintendent Larry Newton, with the help of school board attorney Fred Granade, revised the script two weekends ago to put the portrayal of Jesus' birth on par with secular symbols in the pageant.
Besides the manger scene, the show, "Christmas Traditions," included a little bit of everything that has to do with the season: the Christmas tree, St. Nicholas, reindeer, carols, presents, even a musical tribute to the "Three Little Pigs," with a dancing wolf in a Santa suit.
Denise D'Oliveira, spokeswoman for the county school system, said the Nativity scene previously had been the final scene of the show.
Not a smidgen of disappointment was stirring amid the standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 in the school cafeteria, however. The pageant closed with a standing ovation....
The Mobile Register, Wednesday December 17, 1997
School Prayer
DeMent answers critics
The Associated PressMONTGOMERY — A federal judge, critical of "political posturing" by state officials over his school prayer order, refused to shelve major parts of it, saying Attorney General Bill Pryor wrongly claims the order prohibits a wide variety of religious activities by public school students.
U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent said Wednesday many of the student activities cited by Prior as banned are actually permissible — including singing "Silent Night" at a school Christmas program — and he scolded Gov. Fob James and others for helping foster uncertainty about expressions of faith in public schools.
"The political posturing that has followed this case encourages divisiveness and apprehension, benefits neither the citizens nor the schoolchildren of Alabama, and clouds the real issues raised by this suit: the coercive religious practices engaged in or allowed by state officials in DeKalb County," DeMent wrote in his 78-page decision.
DeMent's ruling came on a request by Pryor for key parts of his Oct. 29 order to be frozen pending appeals to higher courts. Pryor said the sections were vague and overbroad. DeMent basically rejected the request, granting it only for a tiny part.
Pryor later Wednesday claimed "a partial victory" and promised to seek further relief from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He said DeMent has now issued 164 pages of clarifying orders that show the original injunction "was unclear in many respects."
The October order, issued in a suit brought by an assistant principal with a school-age son, found illegally coercive, officially sanctioned religious activities in DeKalb County schools.
DeMent's decision Wednesday said DeKalb County officials have taken proper steps to comply with the October order but that actions taken by some, including the governor, make it clear that the rights of those who filed suit would be violated if the order was shelved during appeals.
The judge cited James' Nov. 4 statement that he "will resist Judge DeMent's order by every legal and political means with every ounce of strength I possess." The judge said legal resistance is perfectly proper, but made clear he feels politicization of the issue is wrong.
The state's position, said DeMent, "essentially argues for preservation of majoritarian will. As the attorney general should know, however, the will of the majority makes for sound argument in election disputes and political grandstanding; not in the analysis of First Amendment jurisprudence."
The judge's order Wednesday adopted language of Birmingham lawyer Pamela Sumners, who represents DeKalb County educator Michael Chandler in the suit to stop forced lunch prayers and other coercive religious activities.
It cites numerous religious activities that Pryor said have been banned by DeMent but in fact are permissible, according to Wednesday's order.
They include: reading the Bible in study hall, class discussion of the meaning of Christmas and Easter, saying grace before lunch and distributing religious materials to classmates during non-instructional time.
Those activities are permissible, the court said, so long as prayers and Bible readings are private expressions and not school-organized, and distribution of church materials are subject to time, place and manner restrictions of non-religious materials.
The judge also said Pryor was wrong in saying hypothetically that a valedictorian couldn't explain the importance of Mother Teresa to her academic success. Such inspirational speech is not a devotional, and is permitted, the order said.
Also, he wrote, in a search of previous orders "the court can find no reference to a ban on the singing of 'Silent Night' or other songs at a school Christmas play or concert."
Among other examples: A parent can pray for an injured player while the parent is seated in the stands, contrary to Pryor's claim.
However, DeMent said a football game incident on Nov. 7, after his order was issued, showed the extent of violations in DeKalb County. The order said prior to the Sylvania High School game, all of the students were asked to go onto the field, with band members and cheerleaders, and hold hands in a circle, to protest the prayer order; a voice over the public address system said he had the support of the governor and later led the students in the Lord's prayer.
The Birmingham Post-Herald, Thursday December 18, 1997
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