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The United States Supreme Court has declined to review a dispute over prayer before public school football games, leaving a 2000 precedent in place.
The decision preserves the ruling in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, which found that student-led prayers over a school’s public address system at football games violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The case addressed a Texas school district policy that allowed students to vote on having an invocation and select a student speaker. The Court held that such prayers at school-sponsored events constituted government endorsement of religion.
The Supreme Court issued no written opinion explaining its refusal to hear the case, leaving lower court rulings unchanged.
