WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court passed up the chance on Tuesday to hear controversial new cases about prayers before public government meetings and punishing students for Internet parodies or attacks made on computers at home.
The high court rejected appeals by local government and school district officials who argued that opening their meetings with prayers did not violate the constitutional requirement on church-state separation.
In one case, the justices let stand a U.S. appeals court ruling that predominately Christian prayers at the start of local Forsyth County commission meetings in North Carolina violated the constitutional prohibition on government endorsement of a particular religion.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped bring the legal challenge on behalf of two longtime residents, said it was glad the case now was settled.
“It is entirely inappropriate for government officials to endorse one set of religious beliefs over others by routinely opening public meetings with sectarian prayers,” said Daniel Mach of the ACLU’s Freedom of Religion and Belief Program.
In the other case, the justices declined to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that struck down the policy of a school board in Delaware of opening each meeting with a prayer, calling it an unconstitutional government endorsement of
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