Thanks for visiting! Welcome to a new way to research case law. You are viewing a free summary from Descrybe.ai. For citation and good law / bad law checking, legal issue analysis, and other advanced tools, explore our Legal Research Toolkit — not free, but close.
Bacus v. Palo Verde Unified School District Board of Education
Citation: 52 F. App'x 355Docket: No. 99-57020; D.C. No. CV-98-00001-RJT
Court: Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; December 2, 2002; Federal Appellate Court
The school board contends that the teachers lack standing to sue on behalf of students and claim no personal harm beyond a general grievance. However, the court determines that the teachers have standing to assert their own claims due to their roles in the community and regular attendance at school board meetings where invocations, alleged to violate the Constitution, occur. The prayers at these meetings, predominantly in the name of Jesus, are deemed unconstitutional as they promote Christianity, thereby providing it preferential status. The court distinguishes this case from Marsh v. Chambers, where legislative prayers were deemed permissible because they did not advance a specific faith after objections were raised. In contrast, the school board's practice did not rotate between different faith leaders and consistently favored one religious belief, violating the Establishment Clause. The court acknowledges that while the school board did not disparage other religions, the invocations effectively made adherence to Christianity relevant to participation in the political community, thus impinging on the standing of non-Christian participants. The court states that the First Amendment prohibits the government from endorsing a specific religion, and injunctions against such practices are routinely granted. The decision is reversed, stating that the school board’s incorporation of regular prayers endorsing one faith is unconstitutional, and the ruling is not to be published or cited in future cases as per Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.