Jerry Markon
Washington Post
Aug. 14, 2003 12:00 AM
An evenly split federal appeals court Wednesday upheld its decision to strike
down the Virginia Military Institute's suppertime prayers as unconstitutional,
refusing to reconsider an earlier ruling that said the 50-year tradition violates
the First Amendment rights of cadets.
Republican state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said he will seek a review of
the hotly contested issue by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kilgore's office defended
VMI in the lawsuit. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union
in 2002 against the state-financed school on behalf of two cadets, Neil Mellen
and Paul Knick.
By a vote of 6-6, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reconsider a
ruling from a three-judge panel in April. Seven votes, a majority of the active
judges, would have been required for a rehearing. The panel had said that VMI
cadets are "plainly coerced into participating" in the prayers as
part of an overall atmosphere that emphasizes "obedience and conformity."
Wednesday's decision marks the third judicial rejection of the suppertime prayers
at VMI. In January, U.S. District Judge Norman Moon in Lynchburg called the
ceremony a "state-sponsored religious exercise" that violates the
separation of church and state.
And the prayers are the second of VMI's hallowed traditions to be struck down
as unconstitutional by the federal courts. The college did not accept women
until the Supreme Court mandated co-education in 1996.
Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, said he is "delighted
with the court's decision" because "we believe it applied the correct
legal standard."
For nearly three generations, students at VMI, based in Lexington, Ky., have been required to stand at attention after marching together into the mess hall. Cadets must stand, hands at their sides, while a "cadet chaplain," a student picked by the chaplain's office, recites a prayer that invokes God, without any mention of Jesus. VMI students are not required to bow their heads or actually recite the prayer.
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