505 U.S. 577 (1992)
In June 1989 Deborah Weisman graduated from Nathan Bishop Middle School, a public school in Providence, Rhode Island.1 For many years the Providence School Committee had permitted principals to invite members of the clergy to deliver invocation and benediction prayers at middle-school and high-school graduation ceremonies.2
Acting pursuant to that policy, principal Robert E. Lee invited Rabbi Leslie Gutterman of Temple Beth El to offer prayers at Deborah's graduation.3 The principal supplied Rabbi Gutterman with a pamphlet entitled "Guidelines for Civic Occasions," prepared by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which advised that public prayers at nonsectarian civic ceremonies should be composed with "inclusiveness and sensitivity."4
The principal further instructed the rabbi that the invocation and benediction should be nonsectarian.5 Rabbi Gutterman accepted the invitation and delivered nonsectarian prayers at the ceremony, which was conducted on school premises.6
Although the parties stipulated that attendance at graduation was voluntary, students who did not attend would not receive their diplomas at that time, and most students participated.7 Four days before the ceremony Daniel Weisman, Deborah's father, sought a temporary restraining order in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island to bar the prayers; the court denied the motion for lack of time.8
Deborah and her family attended the graduation, where the prayers were recited.9 In July 1989 Weisman filed an amended complaint seeking a permanent injunction against the practice at future graduations, including Deborah's upcoming high-school ceremony.10
The case proceeded on stipulated facts.11 The District Court held that the inclusion of invocations and benedictions at public-school graduations violated the Establishment Clause and enjoined the practice.12 The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed.13 The Supreme Court granted certiorari.14
Whether a public school may include an invocation and benediction by a member of the clergy at its official graduation ceremony without violating the Establishment Clause?15
The principle at the heart of the Establishment Clause is that government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise.16
No. In the case of Deborah Weisman's graduation from Nathan Bishop Middle School, the principal Robert E. Lee decided that invocations and benedictions should be given.1718 He selected the rabbi and provided the guidelines from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.19 The ceremony was held on school grounds with the state providing the venue and the audience.20
Daniel and Deborah Weisman, as objectors, were left with no alternative but to attend the ceremony or forgo the honor of attending.21 This created a state-created dilemma where the objector cannot stay silent and avoid the appearance of participating in a religious exercise.22 This state supervision and control of the ceremony placed the objector in the position of participating in a religious exercise as part of the graduation.23
The practice of including clerical members who offer prayers as part of a public school's official graduation ceremony is forbidden by the Establishment Clause.24
Related opinions on this issue
Joined by Stevens And Souter, Jj.
The Establishment Clause prohibits the state from endorsing or promoting religion.25 The graduation prayer in this case was an endorsement of religion by the state.26 The state selected the speaker and gave him guidelines for the prayer.27
The prayer was part of the official school ceremony.28 This is not permitted under the Establishment Clause.29 The fact that the prayer was nonsectarian does not save it.30
The state may not promote religion in any form, sectarian or nonsectarian.31 The state's involvement in the prayer made it an establishment of religion.32
Joined by Stevens And Blackmun, Jj.
The coercion test is the proper test for this case.33 The students were coerced into participating in the religious exercise by the state's control of the graduation ceremony.34 Students who objected to the prayer had no real choice but to attend or miss their graduation.35
This is coercion that violates the Establishment Clause.36 The history of the Establishment Clause supports this view.37 The framers intended to prohibit government sponsorship of religious exercises.38
The graduation prayer is such a sponsorship.39
Whether the nonsectarian character of the prayers, achieved through school-provided guidelines, renders the practice consistent with the Establishment Clause?40
The contention that the Guidelines and the nonsectarian nature of the prayers render them permissible is rejected.41 The question is not whether the prayers were sectarian, but whether the State's supervision and control of the ceremony placed any dissenter in the position of participating in a religious exercise.42
No. Even if the prayers were nonsectarian, as they were in the case of Rabbi Gutterman's delivery at Deborah Weisman's graduation from Nathan Bishop Middle School, the state may not place the student in the position of participating in a religious exercise as part of his graduation.4344 The school's supervision and control of the ceremony made it apparent that the prayers were state-approved, as the principal gave the rabbi the pamphlet and told him that the invocation and benediction should be nonsectarian.45
The nonsectarian character of the prayers does not render the practice consistent with the Establishment Clause.46
Related opinions on this issue
Joined by Rehnquist, C. J., And White And Thomas, Jj.
The Court today holds that a nonsectarian prayer at a public school graduation ceremony violates the Establishment Clause.47 I disagree.48 The Establishment Clause was not intended to prohibit all religious expression in public life.49
The history of this country is filled with examples of public prayer at civic ceremonies.50 The Congress opens with prayer.51 The Supreme Court opens with God save the United States and this Honorable Court.52
These practices have never been thought to violate the Establishment Clause.53 The graduation prayer in this case was a brief, nonsectarian prayer that was part of a long tradition of prayer at public ceremonies.54 The students were not coerced into participating.55
They could choose not to stand or not to attend.56 The Court's finding of coercion is based on a novel and expansive theory that has no basis in history or tradition.57
Whether the formally voluntary nature of attendance at the graduation ceremony eliminates any unconstitutional coercion of objecting students and parents?58
No. Although the parties stipulated that attendance at graduation was voluntary in the case involving Deborah Weisman's graduation from Nathan Bishop Middle School, the option of not attending is formalistic in the extreme.6162 High school graduation is one of life's most significant occasions.63 A student is not free to absent herself from the graduation exercise in any real sense of the term voluntary.64 Absence would require forfeiture of those intangible benefits which have motivated the student through youth and all her high school years.65
The Constitution forbids the State to exact religious conformity from a student as the price of attending her own high school graduation.66
The formally voluntary nature of attendance at the graduation ceremony does not eliminate the unconstitutional coercion of objecting students and parents.67