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Subj: Prayer at USNA Midshipmen Meals
Refer to: Central Region Letter 24-03; August 27, 2003
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PLEASE DO NOT HIT REPLY TO E-MAIL ME. I WILL NOT GET IT. E-MAIL ME DIRECTLY
AT MY USNA ALUMNI CLASSMAIL ADDRESS, len.wass@1964.usna.com
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Chapter Officers - Please give this e-mail the widest possible distribution
among your members and other alumni in your area.
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This Baltimore Sun article just came out and I wanted to share
it with you. I personally applaud the Superintendent and Commandant of
the Naval Academy for standing firm on this issue. There have been altogether
too many years, in my opinion, of attempts to separate "God and State"
throughout our Land. Our Founding Fathers never had this in mind; in fact,
they built our nation upon a strong linkage to our Creator. I believe
it is important to develop the spiritual side of our Midshipmen. Those
who do not wish to participate always have the option to do so. Those
who have been in combat are often the first to recognize the need for
spiritual linkage with God. May God Bless our Naval Academy, our fighting
men and women, and our wonderful country. Here is the Baltimore Sun article
in its entirety.
Navy keeps lunch prayer
U.S. court ruling on VMI doesn't sway academy; Church-state
separation at issue; Maryland ACLU chapter criticizes decision
By: Ariel Sabar, Sun Staff, Originally published August 25, 2003
A chaplain will continue to lead grace before lunch at the Naval Academy,
despite a series of federal court rulings striking down a nearly identical
practice at the Virginia Military Institute as a violation of church-state
separation.
A Navy spokesman said Friday that Navy lawyers have reviewed the rulings
by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and decided that the academy's
grace, said at weekday lunches that all 4,000 midshipmen must attend,
is legal.
The decision leaves the Naval Academy as the only U.S. service academy
that routinely offers a prayer before meals, and it drew an immediate
rebuke from the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The group all but invited midshipmen to sue the school.
"We tried things the nice way, and they've told us to pound sand," said
David R. Rocah, a staff lawyer for the civil liberties group, alluding
to its April letter advising the academy to halt the prayers, which drew
no response.
"If someone is interested in challenging" the academy, Rocah added, "we'd
be perfectly happy to talk to them about doing that."
The Naval Academy had no comment. The Navy spokesman, Lt. Billy Ray Davis,
said Friday that the Navy would not disclose the reasoning behind its
conclusion that the appeals court rulings require no change at Annapolis.
"The Navy is committed to providing appropriate outlets consistent with
the law for free exercise of religion by U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen,"
Davis said. "We are committed to ensuring that our efforts to accommodate
the free exercise of religion ... are fully consistent with the law."
He said that nonsectarian prayers, moments of silence or "devotional thoughts"
are offered before most noon meals.
Legal scholars are divided over whether the court rulings that halted
suppertime prayer at VMI should apply to lunchtime observances at the
Naval Academy. Some have argued that the academy, as an arm of the military,
has wider latitude to restrict First Amendment rights in the name of order
than does a state college such as VMI.
Ritual defended
Earlier this year, a Naval Academy spokesman defended the academy's grace,
a ritual that may date to the school's founding in 1845, as critical to
the "personal and spiritual development" of midshipmen. Although midshipmen
can stand in silence while it is recited, they can face discipline if
they are late or absent.
The Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies, while requiring
attendance at meals, offer just moments of silence beforehand. The U.S.
Military Academy at West Point has neither grace nor a moment of silence.
This month, in response to the VMI rulings, The Citadel, a state military
college in Charleston, S.C., replaced its cadet-led mealtime prayer with
a moment of silence.
VMI, in Lexington, Va., was sued in 2001 by two juniors who objected to
the reading of prayers before supper. The juniors were represented by
the ACLU's Virginia chapter.
In January last year, a federal judge in Lynchburg called VMI's practice
a "state-sponsored religious exercise" and ordered it stopped.
Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore appealed to the 4th Circuit, whose
jurisdiction covers Virginia, Maryland and three other states. But in
April, a three-judge panel upheld the lower court's ruling, saying that
the prayer was unconstitutional because of VMI's culture of "obedience
and conformity."
Court decision
Kilgore asked the entire 4th Circuit bench to reconsider. But in an Aug.
13 decision, the court rejected the request, falling one vote short of
the seven-judge majority that VMI needed to prevail.
The attorney general announced that he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. In a news release, he repeated his contention that VMI's prayers
were no different than those "recited in the United States military, on
ships at sea each night, and before lunch at the United States Naval Academy."
In a dissent to the 4th Circuit's decision this month, Judge J. Harvie
Wilkinson III took a similar view. He predicted that the ruling would
have "significant consequences" at other academies.
"It has thrown all such observances into extended litigation and considerable
doubt," Wilkinson wrote. "Mealtime observances at the service academies
- including the United States Naval Academy within our own circuit - are
bound to be affected."
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