Tanford v. Brand

932 F. Supp. 1139, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10084, 1996 WL 413439
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedJuly 15, 1996
DocketIP 95-492 C B/S
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 932 F. Supp. 1139 (Tanford v. Brand) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tanford v. Brand, 932 F. Supp. 1139, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10084, 1996 WL 413439 (S.D. Ind. 1996).

Opinion

ENTRY

BARKER, Chief Judge.

Two graduations ago, plaintiffs filed the instant suit seeking to enjoin Indiana University (“IU”) from using an invocation and benediction as part of its official university-wide commencement ceremony. On May 4, 1995, just days before the 1995 ceremony was scheduled to begin, we denied plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that plaintiffs were unlikely to prevail on the merits of their suit. Today, we reexamine those merits in more detail and, though the record is supplemented and the legal arguments refined, we confirm that earlier finding.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND.

The facts in this case are largely undisputed. Plaintiffs James Alexander Tanford, Kimberly MacDonald and David Suess are, respectively, a tenured law professor and two Indiana University law students. 1 Joseph Urbanski, a recently-added plaintiff, is an undergraduate student who expects to graduate from IU in May of 1999. Defendant Myles Brand is the President of the University and defendant Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis is the Vice President and Chancellor of the University’s Bloomington campus. The University is a state institution.

By all accounts, IU’s graduation ceremonies are sizeable gatherings. The 1995 ceremony, for example, was held in the football stadium, approximately 5,000 students (out of a graduating class of 7,400) and 150 university officials participated, and between 30,000 to 35,000 people attended. Because of the numbers, students are graduated en masse from their particular schools, and only a few receive individual recognition. The parties agree that between 15% and 55% of graduat *1141 ing law students traditionally participate in this university-wide ceremony.

For over 150 years, the University has invited local clergy to give an invocation and a benediction as part of this ceremony. These prayers are typically recited by ordained ministers of mainstream religious denominations, selected from religious leaders active in the university community. Usually, if not always, the prayers include a reference to a deity. 2 During the ceremony, the cleric is introduced, and the audience is directed to stand during the prayers. The clergyperson, wearing university regalia (cap and gown) also sits on the dais with the University President and other University officials throughout the commencement ceremony.

As part of its graduation-day activities, the School of Law also conducts a second, smaller Recognition Ceremony for its graduates in the IU auditorium. At this ceremony, the University recognizes each of its graduates individually by calling their names and having them walk across the stage to receive their law degrees. Based on past experience, the law school approximates that between 75% to 90% of graduating law students participate, along with family members and friends. Unlike the university-wide ceremony, the law school ceremony does not include an invocation or benediction.

On April 18, 1995, plaintiffs filed the instant suit seeking to permanently enjoin the use of an invocation and benediction as part of the university-wide ceremony. Their one-count complaint alleges that IU’s practice of including a prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. On February 21, 1996, plaintiffs moved for summary judgment, which under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, is proper “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 56(c). The burden rests squarely on the party moving for summary judgment to show “that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party’s case.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The nonmoving party responding to a properly made and supported summary judgment motion still must set forth facts showing that there is a genuine issue of material fact, that a reasonable jury could return a verdict in its favor and that the movant is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Wolf v. City of Fitchburg, 870 F.2d 1327, 1329 (7th Cir.1989).

II. ANALYSIS.

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of religion in no uncertain terms: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ...” U.S. Const. Amend. I. From this simple beginning, however, much confusion and many lawsuits has ensued. As we emphasized in our entry denying plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the purpose of the establishment prohibition is “to prevent, as far as possible, the intrusion of either [the church or the state] into the precincts of the other.” Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 614, 91 S.Ct. 2105, 2112, 29 L.Ed.2d 745 (1971). Yet “total separation is not possible in an absolute sense. Some relationship between government and religious organizations is inevitable.” Id. at 614, 91 S.Ct. at 2112. Indeed, a “relentless and all-pervasive attempt to exclude religion from every aspect of public life could itself become inconsistent with the Constitution.” Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. *1142 577, 597, 112 S.Ct. 2649, 2661, 120 L.Ed.2d 467 (1992).

Given the complexity of the task, it is perhaps not surprising that no single criterion adequately defines the fragile line that separates religious indoctrination from a simple accommodation of religion. The test of longest lineage, the so-called Lemon test, 3 has fallen into disfavor, yet “however frightening it might be to some, has not been overruled.” Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Mo-riches Union Free School Dist., 508 U.S. 384, 394, n. 7, 113 S.Ct. 2141, 2148 n. 7, 124 L.Ed.2d 352 (1993); see also Fleischfresser v. Directors of School Dist. 200, 15 F.3d 680, 686 (7th Cir.1994). The Supreme Court case most analogous to the case at bar, Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 112 S.Ct. 2649, 120 L.Ed.2d 467 (1992), adopts a different analysis, though four of the five Justices in the majority either wrote or joined separate concurrences advocating other constitutional standards.

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Related

Carlino v. Gloucester City High School
57 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D. New Jersey, 1999)
Tanford v. Brand
104 F.3d 982 (Seventh Circuit, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
932 F. Supp. 1139, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10084, 1996 WL 413439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tanford-v-brand-insd-1996.