Contempt Findings In Louisiana School Prayer Case

On Wednesday, a federal judge in New Orleans partially granted two civil contempt motions against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for violating an August 2004 consent order regulating prayer in the school system. 2theadvocate.com today reports on this development in the three-year battle between the ACLU and the school board. At issue were two school banquets at which students offered prayers. The school board claimed that in each case the school board president who attended did not know in advance about the prayers, and the school principals at the banquets believed-- incorrectly-- that student initiated prayers were permissible under the consent decree. Federal district Judge Helen G. Berrigan said in her ruling that school officials should have intervened to stop the prayers, and that good faith belief by the principals that the prayers were permissible is not a defense in a civil contempt action.