California IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Graduation Prayer Ban Challenged

A San Bernardino County school district said it has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a California court ban on prayers at public high school graduations. The Morongo Unified School District wants the high court to accept review of a California Supreme Court decision prohibiting graduation prayers, or to hold the case while it decides a similar issue in a Rhode Island case. The state Supreme Court ruled 5 to 2 in May that religious invocations and benedictions at graduations violate the constitutional separation of church and state. Local school officials say graduation prayers are traditional in a majority of California school districts. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to rule by July on graduation prayers in a Rhode Island public school. If the high court finds the practice permissible under the U.S. Constitution, the California court would be asked to decide whether graduation prayers are also allowed under the state Constitution, which forbids any government preference for religion.