Judge Ready To Rule Against Tangipahoa Parish In Graduation Prayer Case

The Advocate reports today that in a pending case against Tangipahoa Parish School Board challenging a teacher-led prayer at the 2007 PM High School graduation, a Louisiana federal district judge says he has a draft opinion that will rule in favor of the ACLU's challenge. However he is delaying issuing it in order to give the parties until June 27 to agree on a consent order and award of attorneys' fees. The school board has admitted that the prayer was an inadvertent violation of board policy and was unconstitutional. At the last minute the principal asked the teacher to deliver the invocation when the student who was scheduled to do so did not show up. The ACLU has sued Tangipahoa Parish seven times since 1994 over religion in school issues. (See prior related posting.)