Heavy Hitters Brought in to Defend Cranston Prayer Banner
Thursday, April 07, 2011
The first line of defense has arrived and it is working for free.
Legal assistance for the Cranston School Committee’s fight against a complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Rhode Island affiliate over the prayer banner at Cranston West H.S. has come in the form of two different pro bono law resources: the national Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; and noted Providence attorney Joseph V. Cavanagh, Jr.
The crux of the battle is that the plaintiff, a sophomore student named Jessica Ahlquist, who says she is an atheist, has objected to the banner’s presence on the auditorium wall, a prayer that begins “Our Heavenly Father” and ends in “Amen.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe ACLU lawsuit says that Ahlquist “does not subscribe to the religious expression conveyed by the prayer and objects to being subjected to it as a requirement of attending school…” The ACLU said take it down or change the words, and this will all go away. Cranston did neither.
Legal Help Has Strong Credentials
The Becket Fund is a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., whose mission statement says, “...protects the free expression of all faiths. The Becket Fund exists to vindicate a simple but frequently neglected principle: that because the religious impulse is natural to human beings, religious expression is natural to human culture. “ The Fund has worked extensively in the U.S. and internationally, defending the rights of a wide range of religious groups, from Presbyterians to Catholics, Muslims to Mormons.
Cavanagh (at left) is a well-known local attorney who is managing partner and chief trial lawyer at Blish & Cavanagh, which he co-founded. He attended Cranston East H.S. before a stellar career as an All America hockey player at Harvard. He is best known to the public for his work for local media clients who are seeking public access to local, state, and federal government documents and information under Freedom of Information laws, or public access to the deliberations of various governmental bodies under state open meetings laws.
The two parties came to the battle in different ways.
“After the School Committee voted to keep the banner up, we were contacted by the Becket Fund,” said Andrea Ianazzi, an attorney who is chairperson of the Cranston School Committee. “I then called Mr. Cavanagh upon hearing that he might have interest in representing Cranston. All further interviews (of the Becket Fund, Mr. Cavanagh, and other groups) were conducted by Ron Cascione, counsel to the School Committee.”
U.S. Supreme Court Rulings May Play Crucial Role
Both sides will be citing highly publicized U.S. Supreme Court First Amendment decisions to strengthen their arguments.
Lynette Labinger, the volunteer ACLU attorney who will be co-lead counsel for the plaintiff, said when the lawsuit was filed Monday that she would “absolutely” be using the decision reached in the 1992 Lee v. Weisman Supreme Court ruling, which originated in Rhode Island, as a precedent.
It involved the principal of Nathan Hale Middle School, Robert E. Lee, inviting Rabbi Leslie Gutterman to the school’s graduation ceremony and to lead them in prayer. The Weisman parents filed a temporary restraining order to bar the rabbi from speaking, but the motion was denied in RI District Court.
The young lady and her parents attended the graduation where Gutterman gave the benediction, but followed up with their litigation. They eventually won a controversial 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court that preserved the very reduced role that religion should have in public schools.
Eyes on Texas Decision
Eric Rassbach, national litigation director of the Becket Fund, is looking elsewhere for a precedent. He told GoLocalProv that the Cranston scenario “is similar to the ‘10 Commandments case’ on the state capital grounds in Texas.”
In that court action, Van Orden v. Perry, a suit was brought by an Austin man against the State of Texas (Rick Perry, governor) saying that among the monuments on the State House grounds was one that featured the 10 Commandments, and its presence constituted having a religious message endorsed by the state on full public display as one walked around the capital, violating the “establishment clause” that cites the First Amendment’s ensurance of freedom of religion.
In 2005, the Supreme Court decided, also by a 5-4 vote, that the monument was constitutional. Rassbach particularly cited Judge Stephen Breyer’s concurring opinion that read, “As far as I can tell, 40 years passed in which the presence of this monument, legally speaking, went unchallenged (until the single legal objection raised by petitioner). And I am not aware of any evidence suggesting that this was due to a climate of intimidation.”
Whether intentionally or not, the Cranston School Committee has frequently referred to the prayer banner’s “history” on the wall along with other student art projects. It was a gift from Cranston West’s first graduating class decades ago, and until Ahlquist objected, seemed largely unacknowledged.
A Heavyweight Battle
With the Becket Fund’s far-ranging experience—the Fund just won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on April 4 in a church-state tax credit case originating in Arizona—and Cavanagh’s knowledge of the ins-and-outs of Rhode Island courtrooms, the School Committee has a formidable team assembled.
But the ACLU’s Labinger and her co-lead attorney, Thomas Bender, also a volunteer counsel, have been around the block a few times in First Amendment cases, and are very much playing on their home field.
And for those familiar with the vagaries and shifting sands of the legal profession, Becket’s Rassbach pointed out that the Fund had actually at one time represented the ACLU, along with other advocacy groups, in a civil liberties case.
For the ACLU and City of Cranston, the Rhode Island public, interested observers, and the national legal community, this may become the equivalent of a heavyweight prizefight.
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