Top court splits over prayer at high school football games

WASHINGTON - Prayer in public schools, for 40 years a divisive and politically charged issue, split the Supreme Court anew as the justices heard arguments Wednesday over letting students lead stadium crowds in invocations at high school football games.

In comments and questions on a Santa Fe, Texas, school district's now-suspended policy of allowing such prayers, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia were clearly sympathetic to students' free-speech rights.

But Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg repeatedly portrayed the policy as a breach in the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

The court's newest venture into this area of constitutional law comes as an ABC News poll says two-thirds of Americans think students should be permitted to lead such prayers.

Earlier this month in Texas' Republican primary, 94 percent of voters approved a nonbinding resolution backing student-initiated prayer at school sporting events. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, filed a brief supporting student-led prayer.

In a written statement released after Wednesday's court session, Vice President Al Gore said allowing students to engage in voluntary individual or group prayer is not only permissible, but worthy of protection. "Truly voluntary prayer should be allowed in school, but government sponsored prayer violates our constitution," Gore said.

A federal appeals court ruled last year that school officials must tell students to keep their graduation-ceremony comments and prayers "nonsectarian and non-proselytizing" but also ruled that student-led prayers at high school football games are always out of bounds.

The Supreme Court chose to focus only on the football games, passing up the graduation-ceremony dispute.

- compiled by staff and wire reports