Preserving the First Amendment in Educat

Preserving the First Amendment in Education

May 10, 2016

First Liberty graduation graduation rights religious freedom in school Schools

Select students from every graduating class will be asked to stand and give a short speech during their commencement ceremony. In past years, many of these students have wanted to recognize God in their speeches only to be refused by school administrators. This all-to-common scenario raises a timely question: do students have a constitutional right to speak about their religious beliefs in a graduation speech?

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When our Nation’s Founding Fathers wrote the Establishment Clause into the Bill of Rights, they envisioned it as a protective device – a means of safeguarding citizens from a federally-mandated religion. In just over two hundred years, it has instead become a weapon often wielded by government bureaucrats to stamp out any vestige of religion from our public life. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito even warned that religious liberty is “fast becoming a disfavored right.”

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In early May, an unprecedented leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion set off roiling left-wing protests when it indicated the infamous Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion might be reversed.