A chaplain will continue to lead grace before lunch at the Naval Academy, despite a series of federal court rulings striking down a nearly identical practice at the Virginia Military Institute as a violation of church-state separation.
A Navy spokesman said Friday that Navy lawyers have reviewed the rulings by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and decided that the academy's grace, said at weekday lunches that all 4,000 midshipmen must attend, is legal.
The decision leaves the Naval Academy as the only U.S. service academy that routinely offers a prayer before meals, and it drew an immediate rebuke from the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The group all but invited midshipmen to sue the school.
"We tried things the nice way, and they've told us to pound sand," said David R. Rocah, a staff lawyer for the civil liberties group, alluding to its April letter advising the academy to halt the prayers, which drew no response.
"If someone is interested in challenging" the academy, Rocah added, "we'd be perfectly happy to talk to them about doing that."
The Naval Academy had no comment. The Navy spokesman, Lt. Billy Ray Davis, said Friday that the Navy would not disclose the reasoning behind its conclusion that the appeals court rulings require no change at Annapolis.
"The Navy is committed to providing appropriate outlets consistent with the law for free exercise of religion by U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen," Davis said. "We are committed to ensuring that our efforts to accommodate the free exercise of religion ... are fully consistent with the law."
He said that nonsectarian prayers, moments of silence or "devotional thoughts" are offered before most noon meals.
Legal scholars are divided over whether the court rulings that halted suppertime prayer at VMI should apply to lunchtime observances at the Naval Academy. Some have argued that the academy, as an arm of the military, has wider latitude to restrict First Amendment rights in the name of order than does a state college such as VMI.
Ritual defended
Earlier this year, a Naval Academy spokesman defended the academy's grace, a ritual that may date to the school's founding in 1845, as critical to the "personal and spiritual development" of midshipmen. Although midshipmen can stand in silence while it is recited, they can face discipline if they are late or absent.
