I have been amused over the weekend by the “sky is falling” rhetoric of the Right about the impending retirement of David Souter from the Supreme Court. Curiously, Jay, many of your colleagues concede that they don’t like Souter’s record, but all note, as you do, that somebody worse is about to take his seat. …

Well, Jay, we didn’t agree about holding graduations in churches.  It looks like we won’t agree on what students can say or do at graduation, either. Songs which mention God are usually called “hymns.”  Hymns are prayers set to music.  Prayers should not be a part of a public junior high graduation ceremony.  Although the…

Jay, let me assure you and all our commentators that I would be similarly upset about a public school graduation in a mosque or in a predominantly GLBT Metropolitan Community Church. The doctrine of this particular church is, of course, relevant because it is recognized in the community as holding views that any reasonable person…

Well, Jay, let’s move from the national scene to a local one. Americans United has now filed a precedent-setting lawsuit challenging the use of a church for a public high school graduation ceremony in Wisconsin. We had asked a number of Wisconsin schools to stop the practice of holding graduations in churches.  One complied, but…

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