Judge Rules It Unconstitutional To Have Graduation Ceremony In Church

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A Connecticut School District's showdown with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State has come to end -- at least for a year.

With the clock ticking, the Enfield School Board voted 5-4 Thursday night not to appeal a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Janet Hall, who ruled Monday that it was unconstitutional for the district's two high schools to hold their commencement ceremonies at a church.

The vote means the schools will hold their 2010 graduation ceremonies on school grounds.

"We're quite pleased about the vote," said Alex Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The board did the right thing to help the students in the community put this behind them. It allows the schools and the principals to finalize graduation instead having plans up in the air. We want to assure every student can enjoy the graduation without it becoming very divisive.”

But his opponent in the case was far from pleased with the school board's vote.

"I was shocked. I was stunned," said Vincent McCarthy, the attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice. "I thought the decision was pro forma. We had a good chance."

School Board Chairman Greg Stokes was also surprised. Up until the start of Thursday night's meeting, he'd gotten assurances from five board members that they would vote for the appeal.

"The plan was to vote to appeal then work on the backup plan just in case," Stokes said. "I don't know what happened."

Jordan Sekulow, an attorney with the Center for Law and Justice, had felt all along that the case was winnable and that Judge Hall did not consider two similar cases that ruled in favor of the school districts. "This kind of case can go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where it impacts every school district, and that's why it's important," Sekulow said.

Enfield was one of five school districts in Connecticut that planned to hold commencement ceremonies for its high schools at First Cathedral, a megachurch in Bloomfield with state-of-the-art facilities, plenty of legroom and ample parking.

School Board president Greg Stokes says, "When they (the school board) narrowed it down, we came to conclusion as a board that First Cathedral was the right place for the right price.... one-stop shopping."

Stokes said the Enfield football field was off limits because the newly installed Astroturf required a protective covering. (Failure to protect the turf would nullify its warranty.) The small gym would allow only two tickets per students, and there's no air conditioning -- a cause for concern in late June. But now that the board has decided not to appeal, the gym will be the likely site.

Enfield wasn't the only school district singing the praises of First Cathedral.

"We had a great ceremony there," said Mary Alice Dwyer Hughes, chairwoman of the East Hartford School Board. She said the parents loved it and "the kids got a great ceremony."

Last fall the ACLU sent out letters to each of the five districts telling them that if they continued with plans to hold graduations at the church, they would be in violation of the Constitution's establishment clause and that the ACLU would take legal action.

Four of the schools heeded the warning and dropped their plans. Enfield, which has two high schools, stayed the course -- but only after being assured by the Center for Law and Justice that it would handle the legal costs.

On Thursday, the Enfield board voted not to appeal because it wanted to give the students certainty about the location of their commencement. The decision was met by loud boos and jeers from parents and students who packed the meeting.

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JMC Ministries Response

Must be nice to be the ACLU and American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. All they have to do is make complaints and sue to stop those trying to give these children a nice graduation at a church. A church that has been used many times by many schools because they don't have the accommodations at the school. So now hundreds of people will be crammed into a small gymnasium with no air conditioning in Summer to see their children graduate from high school. I think those on the ACLU and American Civil Liberties Union should be forced to sit in that Gym in the squelching heat and cramped space to see how their hard work and persecution of others has turned out.

I think it should be up to the school and graduates where they hold the graduation and if they want to hold it in a church, or any other place let them do it. All the ACLU and American Civil Liberties is, is a bunch of Communist Marxists that will stop at nothing to take away our rights and liberties until they bully and scare everyone into submission and silence.

They stand behind an amendment that was placed into our Laws after the Constitution was written. How can an amendment over write what our Forefathers set into place over 200 years ago? And they said that the Constitution should not be tampered with or changed in anyway.

When did the rights and voices of the people not matter anymore in this country?