Law 790 - Religion and the Constitution
Final Examination
Professor Harpaz
May 1, 2008
Question I
(Suggested Time: 60 minutes) (50 out of 150 total exam points)
Kennedy High School, a public high school in the
City of Springdale, holds its annual Senior Awards Assembly (SAA)
in April. During the SAA, awards are given to graduating seniors
to recognize various forms of academic and extracurricular
achievement. The SAA is held in the high school auditorium and is
attended by teachers, graduating seniors and their families, and
local officials. Attendance at the SAA is mandatory for
graduating seniors.
The SAA is presided over by Carolyn Cooper, the
principal of Kennedy High School. Also on stage are a number of
elected officials including the Mayor of Springdale, the members of the
City Council, and the members of the Springdale School Board. At
the SAA, each award is introduced by a teacher who explains what the
award recognizes and how its recipient was selected. The teacher
then announces the name of the student who wins the award and the
winning student comes to the stage to receive the award from Principal
Cooper. Principal Cooper then congratulates the student, hands
the award to the student, and says a few words to recognize the
student’s achievement.
The one exception to this format occurs when, as
sometimes happens, the child of one of the elected officials seated on
stage wins an award. When that occurs, as a courtesy to the
official, after the award recipient is named, the official joins
Principal Cooper and makes some congratulatory remarks. The
award winners are not announced in advance so the officials do not know
that their child will win an award, although in some cases they may be
able to anticipate that this is likely to occur.
The 2008 Senior Awards Assembly occurred two weeks
ago. One of the award recipients was Mary Arnold, the daughter of
Alan Arnold, the Chairman of the Springdale School Board. After
Mary Arnold’s name was announced as the winner of the Outstanding
Scholar Award, based on her academic average, Mr. Arnold joined
Principal Cooper to bestow the award on his daughter. At that
time, he made the following remarks:
Mary, as your father
I am proud that you have won this award, and even prouder that you have
done so while serving Jesus Christ. We have often prayed together
as you have progressed through school and I ask you and everyone in the
audience to bow their head and pray with me now on this great occasion.
Dear Savior, bless all those who begin a new stage
in their lives. Teach them to know you as the true wisdom of God that
has come down from heaven. Lead them to find fulfillment in their daily
walks with you, rather than in worldly success. And increase in them
the understanding that the things of this world are not an end in
themselves, but are a means of preparing for the commencement of the
life to come. Amen.
At the conclusion of the SAA, several parents told
Principal Cooper that they were made uncomfortable by Mr. Arnold’s
remarks and prayer. The principal told the parents that she was
sorry, but that she had no control over Mr. Arnold and that he was
speaking as a parent. Despite her statements, Principal Cooper
was concerned about the religious content of Mr. Arnold’s
remarks. She was particularly concerned that a similar incident
might occur at the upcoming high school graduation because Mary Arnold
will also receive an academic award on that occasion and her father
will have a similar opportunity to congratulate her.
Mark Miles (MM), the father of Jane Miles (JM), a
senior who is about to graduate, attended the SAA with his
daughter. MM and JM also plan to attend the Kennedy High School
graduation. MM has now filed suit against the Springdale School
District in federal court on behalf of himself and his daughter.
The suit argues that Mr. Arnold’s remarks and prayer at the SAA
violated the Establishment Clause and that a similar incident at
graduation will also violate the Establishment Clause. The suit
seeks both damages and injunctive relief.
You are a law clerk for the judge assigned to the
case. The judge asks you to write an analysis of the
Establishment Clause arguments available to MM to challenge Mr.
Arnold’s remarks and prayer at the SAA as well as the arguments
available to the School District to defend its position that Mr.
Arnold’s remarks and prayer at the SAA were not a violation of the
Establishment Clause. The judge asks you to include in your
analysis whether, even if Mr. Arnold’s remarks and prayer at the SAA
were constitutional under the Establishment Clause, a repetition
of those remarks and prayer at the upcoming high school graduation
might nevertheless violate the Establishment Clause.
Question II
(Suggested Time: 60 minutes) (50 out of 150 total exam points)
The City of Springdale’s population has become
increasingly diverse in terms of the race, religion, and ethnicity of
its citizens. To celebrate the City’s religious diversity, five
years ago the City created a display entitled “Our Religious
Heritage.” It placed the display on the lawn in front of City
Hall. The display originally included four religious symbols: a
Christian Cross (Christianity), a Star of David (Judaism), a Wheel of
Dharma (Buddhism), and the Star and Crescent (Islam). A bronze
plaque in front of the display contained a quotation by Robert Kennedy:
“Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the
very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.”
Shortly after the display was placed on the lawn,
three religious denominations with members in Springdale asked the City
to accept donations to add even greater religious diversity to the
display. In response to those requests, the City accepted gifts
of a Flaming Chalice (Unitarian Universalism), Nine Pointed Star
(Bahá'í Faith) and Aum (Hinduism). As a result of
those donations, for the last four years there have been seven
religious symbols in the “Our Religious Heritage” display.
No additional requests for inclusion in the display
occurred till very recently. Last month, the City received a
request to add a symbol to the display from a local group called the
Springdale Church of Atheism. The Springdale Church of Atheism is
a group whose members do not believe in God or any divine force.
The Springdale Church of Atheism was established in 1973 and currently
has 40 members. Members of the Church believe that human progress
can best be achieved through the scientific method and rational, open
inquiry. The Church motto is “Reason, Thought, Compassion.”
The Springdale Church of Atheism meets each week on
Sunday at a member’s house for a Sunday Seminar. The literature
of the Church includes works by prominent Atheists including Richard
Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, Sam Harris, and Daniel
Dennett. This literature is discussed at the Sunday
Seminars. In addition, a part of this weekly seminar is a Moment
of Science in which a member of the group speaks about an important
scientific invention. In addition, the group concludes its Sunday
Seminar with the following reading: “Nothing exists besides natural
phenomena. Thought is merely a function of that natural phenomena.
Death is complete, and irreversible. We have faith solely in humankind,
nature, and the facts of science.”
The Symbol of the Church of Atheism is an atomic
symbol with an incomplete vertical electron orbit and the letter “A” in
the center. The incomplete orbit stands for the incompleteness
that is inherent in science and the “A” stands for Atheism. The
Springdale Church of Atheism has offered to donate a suitable replica
of its symbol for inclusion in the “Our Religious Heritage”
display. The City rejected the request on the ground that Atheism
is not a religion, but a rejection of religion.
Recently two lawsuits were filed in federal court
against the City of Springdale. The first was by the Springdale
Church of Atheism (SCA). The SCA claims that the City violated
its right to free speech by refusing to include its symbol in the “Our
Religious Heritage” display in front of City Hall. The second
lawsuit is by Barbara Babcock (BB). BB lives in the nearby town
of Northfield. She works in Springdale and occasionally walks by
City Hall during her lunch hour. BB is a strong believer in the
separation of church and state and she is offended by the display of
religious symbols on the City Hall lawn. She has brought suit
arguing that the display violates the Establishment Clause.
You are a law clerk to the judge who has been
assigned to both lawsuits. The judge asks you to write an
analysis of the First Amendment free speech arguments that can be made
by SCA in challenging the City’s decision to exclude its symbol as well
as the arguments that can be made by the City to defend its decision to
reject the symbol. The judge also asks you to write an analysis
of the Establishment Clause arguments that can be made by BB to
challenge the “Our Religious Heritage” display as well as the arguments
that can be made by the City to defend the display.
Question III
(Suggested time: 60 minutes) (50 out of 150 total exam points)
The State of Northeast has been concerned about the
quality of teachers in its elementary schools. Two years ago, to
increase the training received by elementary school teachers, the State
passed the Elementary School Teacher Continuing Education Act
(ESTCEA). The Act, among other things, created the Elementary
School Teacher Continuing Education Fund (ESTCEF or the Fund).
Money from the Fund is available to all public and private elementary
schools within the State based on the number of elementary school
teachers they employ.
There are a total of 20,000 elementary school
teachers employed within the state. Of the total, 16,000 (80 %)
are employed by public schools and 4,000 (20 %) are employed by private
schools. Of the 4000 elementary school teachers employed by
private schools, 3000 or 75 % teach at schools affiliated with various
religious denominations and 1000 or 25% teach at secular schools with
no religious affiliation. The 3000 teachers employed at private
religious schools represent 15 % of the total number of elementary
school teachers.
Under the terms of the Elementary School Teacher
Continuing Education Act, an account is created for each elementary
school, and money from the Fund is placed in that account annually
based on the number of elementary school teachers the school
employs. A school can draw upon the money in its account to
reimburse it for sums expended in teacher training. Money unspent
at the end of each fiscal year goes back into the Fund. This “use
it or lose it” aspect of the funding is designed to encourage schools
to make use of the money placed in the school’s account each
year. The reimbursement process requires that schools keep
records to verify its expenditure of funds for teacher training.
During the two years of its existence, $8,000,000,
or $400 per teacher, has been placed in the Fund each year for
distribution to each elementary school’s account. During this
time, the fund has reimbursed schools for money spent to hire
specialists to conduct onsite seminars for its teachers, and to
enable schools to pay the costs so its teachers can enrol in graduate
courses in education at nearby colleges and universities, take online
courses in teacher training, and attend educational seminars. All
of these are reimbursable expenditures under the ESTCEA. Among
the educational seminars that teachers have attended is the annual
Catholic Elementary School Teachers Workshop. The Workshop helps
teachers to introduce additional spiritual elements of Catholicism into
their teaching of secular subjects. In addition, a Jewish Day
School hired a well known Jewish educator to help its teachers more
effectively communicate the values that are part of the Jewish religion
to elementary school children. The expenses for these programs
were reimbursed from the Elementary School Teacher Continuing Education
Fund.
A lawsuit has been filed in federal court by Joan
Jackson (JJ), a resident and taxpayer of the State of Northeast.
JJ argues that the ESTCEF violates the Establishment Clause. The
State of Northeast is defending the lawsuit on the ground that the
ESTCEF does not violate the Establishment Clause and that the exclusion
of parochial school teacher training from reimbursement from the Fund
would violate the Constitution.
You are a law clerk to the judge assigned to the
case. The judge asks you to write an analysis of the
Establishment Clause arguments that can be made by Joan Jackson in
challenging the ESTCEF as well as the arguments that can be made by the
State of Northeast in response to those arguments.
END OF EXAMINATION