Prayer suit killed in Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review lower court decisions barring voluntary prayer at “optional” assemblies in the Chandler Unified School District south of Phoenix. Chandler High School Principal Howard Conley said he was disappointed by the decision. “I would suppose this is the end of the prayer issue. You can’t go any higher than the Supreme Court. We’ll certainly abide by the Supreme Court,” he said. The high court, by refusing to review the case, upheld a 1979 court ruling. Prayers were prohibited on constitutional grounds by U.S. District Judge Carl A. Muecke, who cited a 1962 Supreme Court ruling that outlawed school sponsorship of prayers. Muecke’s ruling was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court last May. The Chandler controversy originated in 1978 when Theresa Collins, the mother of two students, challenged the school’s practice of allowing the student council to open school assemblies with a prayer. The practice of opening the morning assemblies with voluntary prayer went on at the school from at least 1976-77, when Conley took over as principal, to March 1979 when the District Court made its ruling. Conley said he thought the Supreme Court might allow the prayers in Chandler High School because of the “different way” they were presented at the school. Prayers were given during non-mandatory assemblies by decision of the students, he said. “Our assemblies are organized, developed and administered by students. “It was not a state prayer, Methodist