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Thursday, July 26, 2007
Courts - More on local Louisiana school board prayer decision by the 5th Circuit
The ILB has had entries Feb. 12th and Jan. 20th, 2007, on a "three-year legal battle over prayers at Tangipahoa Parish School Board meetings."
[Following the Jan. 20th entry, the ILB wrote: "Oral arguments were held in Indiana's legislative prayer lawsuit on Sept. 7, 2006, in Hindricks v. Bosma, before the 7th Circuit . The ILB is anticipating a decision by the 3-judge panel any day now.]
Today, Howard Bashman of How Appealing has a report that an 8-7 en banc ruling of the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit threw out the case on standing grounds. From the AP coverage:
Writing for the majority, Chief Judge Edith Jones found that the court record had no evidence that the plaintiffs actually were exposed to the meeting invocations to claim a harm under the Establishment Cause of the U.S. Constitution.Although standing had not been an issue, attorneys for the School Board raised the issue in their brief to the appeals court.
"It is not this court's fault that the connection between their attendance and allegedly unconstitutional activity is not made in the record," the ruling said.
"Without the requisite specifics, this court would be speculating upon the facts. This is something we cannot do, particularly in the standing context, where the facts must be proven, not merely asserted or inferred. ... To find lack of standing at this late stage no doubt poses an inconvenience for the parties. On the other hand, it spares this court from issuing a largely hypothetically-based ruling on issues of broad importance to deliberative public bodies in this circuit and beyond."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 26, 2007 10:06 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts