quote:

---

School-Sponsored Prayers at VA Military Institute Wrongly
Entangle Government and Religion, Court Declares
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 24, 2002

LYNCHBURG, VA--A federal court judge in Lynchburg ruled today that
school-sponsored prayers at the Virginia Military Institute are
unconstitutional because they allow government to "become impermissibly
entangled with religion."

The ruling was hailed as a victory for religious liberty by the American
Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which represented two cadets who
challenged the school's practice of assembling students for a prayer
ceremony prior to each evening meal.

In his ruling, Judge Norman K. Moon wrote: "Because of the intense,
coercive environment created by the Institute's adversarial method,
under which students are instructed to 'subordinate [their] own personal
desires and well-being to the good of the whole unit,' the primary
effect of this practice has been to compel students to participate in a
state-sponsored religious exercise. Finally, because the prayers are
drafted and recited at the direction of the Institute's Superintendent,
the result is that government has become impermissibly entangled with
religion."

"The right not to be pressured by the state to participate in a
religious activity is just as important as the right of all persons to
freely choose their own religion," said Kent Willis, Executive Director
of the ACLU of Virginia. "The court reminded us of that important
principle today."

When VMI seniors Neil Mellen and Paul Knick came to the ACLU with their
complaint, "we hoped to resolve the matter short of litigation," said
Rebecca Glenberg, Legal Director of the ACLU of Virginia, who argued the
case before Judge Moon on December 13. "Unfortunately, neither the ACLU
nor the students were able to convince VMI officials that they were
violating the Constitution, and we had to take the case to court."

Willis added that "this was not an attempt by the ACLU or the students
to remove religion from the VMI campus. Every student should be allowed
to practice the religion of his or her choice.. In fact, it would be
wrong for VMI to prevent individual or group religious practices that do
not disrupt the school's educational process. But the Constitution
prohibits the state from pressuring anyone to participate in a religious
ceremony, and that is exactly what was happening here."

---