curlymae29
01-12-2004, 07:47 PM
Candy-Toting Kindergartner's Case Appealed to High Court
By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
January 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - A civil liberties group has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a kindergarten student whose religious expression was censored by his New Jersey school.
Back in 1998, Egg Harbor Township Public Schools barred Daniel Walz from passing out pencils and candy canes bearing Christian messages to his classmates. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the school's actions, even though Daniel's classmates were allowed to distribute non-religious items at holiday parties.
Now the Rutherford Institute is appealing the case to the highest court in the land. Institute attorney Rita Dunaway says the Establishment Clause in the U.S. Constitution does not justify censoring speech because of its religious nature.
"In the Supreme Court's voluminous jurisprudence just on free speech in general in any context, [it] has been very clear that viewpoint-based discrimination against speech is never permitted -- no matter what the form is," the Rutherford attorney says.
According to Dunaway, the only reason Daniel was prevented from handing out his gifts was because they had religious messages printed on them. She says the Supreme Court has yet to address a case dealing with student speech in an elementary school context.
"One of the questions we'd like the Supreme Court to resolve in the case is -- Does the court's jurisprudence dealing with student speech in the high school and middle school context apply in the elementary school context? We would argue that it basically does apply in that context," she says.
Rutherford president John Whitehead says it is "ludicrous" for a school to prohibit a student from handing out gifts to classmates simply because it is afraid a parent will mistakenly assume the school is party to the gift-giving. He says his legal group is hopeful the Supreme Court will recognize the school's actions "for what they are -- religious discrimination."
By Jim Brown and Jody Brown
January 8, 2004
(AgapePress) - A civil liberties group has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a kindergarten student whose religious expression was censored by his New Jersey school.
Back in 1998, Egg Harbor Township Public Schools barred Daniel Walz from passing out pencils and candy canes bearing Christian messages to his classmates. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the school's actions, even though Daniel's classmates were allowed to distribute non-religious items at holiday parties.
Now the Rutherford Institute is appealing the case to the highest court in the land. Institute attorney Rita Dunaway says the Establishment Clause in the U.S. Constitution does not justify censoring speech because of its religious nature.
"In the Supreme Court's voluminous jurisprudence just on free speech in general in any context, [it] has been very clear that viewpoint-based discrimination against speech is never permitted -- no matter what the form is," the Rutherford attorney says.
According to Dunaway, the only reason Daniel was prevented from handing out his gifts was because they had religious messages printed on them. She says the Supreme Court has yet to address a case dealing with student speech in an elementary school context.
"One of the questions we'd like the Supreme Court to resolve in the case is -- Does the court's jurisprudence dealing with student speech in the high school and middle school context apply in the elementary school context? We would argue that it basically does apply in that context," she says.
Rutherford president John Whitehead says it is "ludicrous" for a school to prohibit a student from handing out gifts to classmates simply because it is afraid a parent will mistakenly assume the school is party to the gift-giving. He says his legal group is hopeful the Supreme Court will recognize the school's actions "for what they are -- religious discrimination."