Terry McAuliffe to veto bill about religious expression in schools

[rug]

Posted on Feb 25, 2014
by Michael Sluss

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe will veto a bill aimed at protecting the rights of students to express religious viewpoints on public school grounds if the legislation reaches his desk, his office said Monday.

A McAuliffe spokesman outlined the governor’s opposition to the bill after it cleared a House of Delegates committee Monday morning. The legislation, which passed the Senate last month, should come up for a vote in the full House later this week

“He’s very concerned about the constitutionality of the bill, but he’s also concerned about the unintended consequences,” McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson County, said the veto threat is premature.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/article_1d891e70-9de3-11e3-817e-0017a43b2370.html

[Jim__]

1. What is the current law with respect to students speaking at school events?

Carrico’s bill would require every Virginia school division to adopt a policy permitting student speakers to express religious viewpoints at any school event in which students are allowed to publicly speak. Those events would be treated as “limited public forums.” Principals would be required to provide disclaimers to underscore that school divisions don’t endorse the speakers’ religious views.

I can see why schools need to control student speech at school events. Is religious speech treated different than other student speech in this respect? Have the federal courts ruled on this issue?

[rug]

8. The ACLU has a good synopsis, God bless them.

https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/joint-statement-current-law-religion-public-schools

[Jim__]

10. Thanks. They seem to leave this as an open question.

About the closest statement I could find was:

3. The courts have reached conflicting conclusions under the federal Constitution on student-initiated prayer at graduation. Until the issue is authoritatively resolved, schools should ask their lawyers what rules apply in their area.

If the question of student-initiated prayer is not authoritatively resolved, I would think that leaves the question of student's generally talking about religion open too.

[rug]

11. The tension is between allowing students expression and using a government school to promote

a particular religion.

[Jim__]

12. The law does seem like an invitation to litigation.

[rug]

13. Yeah, it looks like another republican pandering stunt.

Good for McAuliffe.

[Beachwood]

2. Alabama Legislators Approve Bill Requiring School Prayer Every Morning

http://gawker.com/alabama-legislators-pass-bill-requiring-school-prayer-e-1529495374

A key committee in Alabama's House of Representatives has pushed through a bill requiring teachers and students at all of the state's public schools to spend 15 minutes every morning in Christian prayer, even though a majority of legislators present say they opposed the measure.

Alabama, of course, is a churchin' state, ranked the "2nd most religious state" behind its neighbor, Mississippi. Alabama is also home to Roy Moore, the state Supreme Court chief justice who fought to keep a massive stone sculpture of the Ten Commandments in the state court building.

But that stand seems lukewarm next to the current House measure's planned compulsion of religion among captive pupils. The bill passed through the chamber's education policy committee late last week, according to the Montgomery Advertiser:

IF this is true,


doesn't any legislator in state legistures read Supreme Court decisions from the 1960's anymore?

[Brettongarcia]

3. Mississippi, the most religious state in the US, has the lowest high school graduation rate

Its main law school, Old Miss (U Miss), is typically rated at the very bottom too. Mitch McConnell is a graduate. This is where the conservative "brain trust" comes from.

What's not to respect?

Plus Alabama and Mississippi are among the states that tried to destroy the United States of America; killing millions of Americans in their war to perpetuate slavery, no less.

Heck, Bubba. What could be wrong?

[Beachwood]

4. Did not know that Mitch went to Old Miss for law school

But it figures. He's obviously dumb enough to be the top of his class there.

Now how did that bill ever pass in the VA legislature to get to McAuliffe's desk for a veto? Are there not enough lawyers who acually know about Supreme Court decisions of the 1960's in the VA legislature?

Requiring prayer and reading of the Bible for anything other than literature class in public schools has been illegal for over 50 years.

[cbayer]

6. Wait, are you saying that the students at Ole Miss are all dumb?

What other southern states do you think this about?

[rug]

9. He didn't. He went to the University of Kentucky.

The facts are flying fast and furious.

[cbayer]

7. You continue to just make up "facts". What is with that?

California has the bulk of the lowest rated law schools in the country. Ole Miss does not appear on a single list of the worst law schools that I can find. Not even in the bottom 25%.

And you are bringing the Civil War into this?

Heck, bubba - what's not to respect and what could be wrong with what you post here?

[cbayer]

5. This will never stand a court challenge.

Plus the committee apparently didn't even have an up vote, which is unbelievable. Do they not use parliamentary procedure that would allow the members to call for a show of hands???

[Mariana]

14. 15 minutes in prayer every morning?

They seriously expect kids to listen to 15 minutes of prayer right after they get to school? Please. That's long enough to take a nice little nap, which is exactly what I suspect most of the students will do during prayer time if this idiotic idea is ever implemented.

[Beachwood]

15. Can any of us say that some normally sane and reasonable people do some

very strange things when they hold political power?

I think the is just one more example as to why religious believers, (although not actually suffering from "insanity&quot , seem to do some rather stupid things, all in the name of their religious beliefs. From the Arizona legislation that passed last week, to the Ugandan legislation (a revised "kill-the-gays" bill that only forces gay folks into life in prison, how nice!) to this bill. A bill emerging from some committee in Alabama forcing Jewish, Mulsim, non-religious, and all Christian children in the state to endure more moments in prayer each and every day than most Christians endure in prayer if and when they go to church one day a week on Sundays.

And, of course, none of these prayers will be Islamic prayers, will they?