Lee v. Weisman Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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Lee v. Weisman | 505 U.S. 577 (1992)
Caps and gowns, Pomp and Circumstance, and cheers and tears. That’s what we expect at a public school graduation ceremony. But what about religious prayers? May they be included in the ceremony without violating the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause? The United States Supreme Court addressed this issue in Lee versus Weisman.
The public school board and superintendent of Providence, Rhode Island, had a policy that permitted principals of middle and high schools to invite clergy members to lead prayers at graduation ceremonies. The custom of the school system was to provide the invited clergy members a pamphlet published by the National Conference of Christians and Jews that offered guidance about giving nonsectarian prayers at public ceremonies like graduations.
Robert Lee, the principal of fourteen-year-old Deborah Weisman’s middle school in Providence, invited a Jewish rabbi to give the invocation and benediction at the graduation ceremony that Weisman would attend. Deborah’s father, Daniel Weisman, objected to the rabbi’s participation before the ceremony, but the principal refused to withdraw the invitation. Deborah went to the graduation ceremony, attendance at which was not required for a student to graduate. The rabbi gave the invocation and benediction, which included the terms God and Lord and also quoted, without attribution, from the Old Testament in the King James Bible. He ended each prayer with the word amen.
Shortly before the ceremony, Deborah’s father had filed a federal lawsuit against Principal Lee and other school officials, seeking an injunction against the school system’s custom of inviting clergy members to lead prayers at graduation ceremonies. The district court refused to enjoin the practice at Deborah’s middle school graduation, because the lawsuit was filed too soon before the scheduled event. But the court agreed to consider the First Amendment issue with respect to future graduation ceremonies. Deborah later enrolled in a public high school in Providence. The court eventually concluded that the school system’s practice violated the Establishment Clause and enjoined it from engaging in the practice at future graduation ceremonies. Lee and the other defendants appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which affirmed the district court’s injunction.
Lee and the other school officials successfully petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review Weisman’s case.
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[@martizen]

thanks for helping me understand my homework

[@karenrobin1449]

Thank you for the brief!