Orlando, FL - Liberty Counsel President and General Counsel, Mathew D. Staver, announced the organization's third national "Friend or Foe Graduation Campaign." On its web site (LC.org), Liberty Counsel has posted a detailed legal memorandum excerpted from Staver's book which was released last week, Eternal Vigilance: Knowing and Protecting Your Religious Freedom.

Staver described the campaign as follows: "The Friend or Foe Graduation Campaign means that Liberty Counsel will be a friend to those schools that take a neutral position regarding the messages presented by students at graduation. However, Liberty Counsel will be a foe of schools that censor the religious viewpoint or content of student speakers. We will provide guidance, education and free legal representation to those schools that protect the free speech rights of students, and we will file suit against those schools that violate their First Amendment rights."

So long as the school remains neutral and neither commands prayer or religious speech nor prohibits voluntary prayer or religious speech, the Constitution is not offended.

The Supreme Court has never banned all religious speech or prayer from graduation. In Lee v. Weisman, the Court recognized that "at graduation time and throughout the course of the educational process, there will be instances when religious values, religious practices, and religious persons will have some interaction with the public schools and their students." What the Court prohibited is school-sponsored prayer, where the school commands prayer and directs its content. However, when a student or outside speaker is selected to speak at graduation using neutral criteria such as academic achievement, class office or leadership, the speaker may give a message of his or her own choice, and that message can include religious content. Schools may also use a neutral message policy, which allows students to present a message on any topic of their choice. Also, graduation or baccalaureate services may be privately sponsored, either on or off campus. A privately sponsored ceremony may have a great deal of religious content, and the speakers may be invited to pray or present a religious message. School officials may also participate in private ceremonies on their own time.

Staver commented: "Students and invited speakers do not shed their constitutional rights when they step up to the graduation podium. School officials should neither command students to pray nor prohibit them from praying. When in doubt, remain neutral and allow the speaker to present a message of his or her own choice. Liberty Counsel will be the friend of schools that protect the rights of students and invited speakers, but we will be a foe of those schools that are a foe to the liberties protected by the First Amendment."

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