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Suit Chalenges Use of Cathedral For High School Commencement

By Howard M. Friedman

In Connecticut, the ACLU and Americans United have been objecting to several high schools' traditional use of Bloomfield, Connecticut's First Cathedral for their graduation ceremonies. (See prior posting.) One of the schools, Enfield High School, originally agreed to move this year's ceremony to school property, but after objections were raised by the Family Institute of Connecticut, the school board last month decided to move the ceremonies back to the Cathedral. Yesterday the ACLU filed suit on behalf of two Enfield students and three of their parents. The complaint (full text) in Does v. Enfield Public Schools, (D CT, filed 5/5/2010)alleges:

Holding a public-school graduation in such a religious environment violates the Establishment Clause ... : the location coerces students and parents to receive the overwhelming religious message of the Cathedral as the price of attending a seminal event in their lives; communicates a message of governmental favoritism of the Christian religion; entails the use of public funds to support religion-infused graduations; and excessively entangles the Schools with a religious institution. The practice also violates Article Seventh of the Connecticut Constitution, which provides that ?no person shall by law be compelled to . . . support, nor be . . . associated with, any congregation, church or religious association.?

USA Today reports on the filing of the lawsuit.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 06, 2010 (boomark / email).