The US Supreme Court recently denied a petition for a writ of certiorari for a case involving a high school senior who was forbidden by school officials from playing a religious piece during her graduation ceremony.
"Kathryn Nurre, was a high school senior and a member of her school’s wind ensemble. In keeping with a school tradition, the school’s band director told the seniors that they could select a piece from their musical repertoire to be performed during their graduation ceremony. The 2006 graduates, chose Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” a piece that they had previously performed and that “they believed showcased their talent and the culmination of their instrumental work.” However, "at the prior year’s graduation ceremony, the student choir had performed ‘Up Above My Head,’ a vocal piece which included express references to ‘God,’ ‘heaven,’ and ‘angels,’ and the school district claimed that this had resulted in complaints from graduation attendees and at least one angry letter to the editor of a local newspaper."
The US District 9 Court of Appeals held that the "public school did not violate the free speech rights of a student by banning the performance of 'an obviously religious piece'. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that the district’s decision would have been impermissible if it had constituted viewpoint discrimination, but the court concluded that “this is not a case involving viewpoint discrimination” because the student “concede[d] that she was not attempting to express any specific religious viewpoint” but instead “sought only to ‘play a pretty piece.’”
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/09-671.pdf
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I am going to agree with the Supreme Court for denying the petition. It seems as though the student mixed the issue of religion, even though the issue really didn't have to do with religion at all. Instead, the issue she has was that her pretty piece of music was denyed. Sometimes I wonder why and how some people feel the need to bring certain cases to court and waste time and tax payers dollars. In this case, no one was hurt (well, maybe the student's emotional feelings from being told 'no') and no one gained anything from anyone. It was just a high school graduation ceremony...sheesh!!
ReplyDeleteI think the student should of been allowed to play the song. If an individual decides to play an religious song it should be protected under the 1st amendment. Hypothetically if the public school decided the wind ensemble should play a religious song it would be rightfully against the constitution. The constitution prohibits establishment of religion by a public institution.
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