On 15 Jul 10, FOX News reported that, “A group of Christian students was allegedly ordered to stop praying outside the U.S. Supreme Court building on May 5 because a court police officer told them it was against the law.”
According to a FOX News Radio report, the teacher escorting the group of students, Maureen Rigo, said, “I was pretty shocked because we’ve prayed there before and it’s never been an issue.” She continued, “His (the police officer’s) comment was ‘I’m not going to tell you that you can’t pray. You just can’t pray here.’”
Rigo was also quoted as saying, “It was just supposed to be a time that we could pray quietly for the Supreme Court, for the decisions they need to make and for our congressmen,” she said. “We kind of feel like our government can use all the prayers it can get.”
According to a 15 Jul 10, Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) press release, the ADF sent a letter to the Supreme Court Counsel asking officials to stop “police officers from prohibiting people from quietly praying outside the court building.” The press release quoted ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum as saying, “Christians shouldn’t be silenced for exercising their beliefs through quiet prayer on public property.” Kellum continued,“The last place you’d expect this kind of obvious disregard for the First Amendment would be on the grounds of the U.S. Supreme Court itself, but that’s what happened.”
According to the ADF press release, “The prayer was stopped based on a statute, 40 U.S.C. §6135, which bars parades and processions on Supreme Court grounds.” In response to the alleged reason for stopping the prayer, the ADF letter to Supreme Court officials stated, “Mrs. Rigo was not engaging in a parade, procession, or assembly. She was speaking in a conversational level to those around her with her head bowed.” The ADF letter asserts, “There is no reason to silence Mrs. Rigo’s activities since these activities do not attract attention, create a crowd, or give off the appearance of impartiality. The ban on public prayers cannot hope to survive First Amendment scrutiny.”
The ADF letter noted, “Evidently, people may engage in all sorts of conversational expression on Supreme Court grounds unless that expression happens to involve prayer.” The letter continued, “In so doing, the Supreme Court police have not targeted a subject matter or class of expression, but targeted a particular viewpoint for censorship. They have singled out and censored religious prayer as the only form of conversation to be silenced.”
The letter continues to cite First Amendment rulings which have declared unconstitutional bans whose “sole target is religious speech.” The letter concludes with a demand that the Supreme Court officials respond with a reassurance that Rigo may return to the Supreme Court grounds and exercise her rights to pray without fear of punishment. The letter asserts that if officials do not provide assurances within three weeks, Rigo and the ADF can only conclude there will be no respite and Rigo will need to seek “legal action to ensure the exercise of her constitutional rights.”
Cited Articles and Posts
FOX News (15 Jul 10)
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/15/students-ordered-stop-praying-outside-supreme-court-building/
FOX News Radio (not dated)
Alliance Defense Fund (15 Jul 10)
http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/4120
Alliance Defense Fund (15 Jul 10) Letter to Supreme Court Counsel
