ACLU Seeks Permanent Injunction Against Holding Graduation in Church

The legal battle over whether to hold a public school graduation ceremony at a church continued on Tuesday.

A federal judge heard arguments from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Enfield Board of Education on the case and the ruling that holding such a ceremony at a church was unconstitutional, the Hartford Courant reports.

The legal battle began more than a year ago when five Enfield residents, two high school seniors and three parents, challenged the school board's decision to hold graduation for Enfield and Enrico Fermi high schools at First Cathedral, a 3,000-seat Bloomfield church.

As the paper reports, the ACLU is now seeking to make permanent a temporary injunction issued in June. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Janet Hall wrote that holding the graduations at First Cathedral would violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"By choosing to hold graduations at First Cathedral," Hall wrote, the Enfield school system sends "the message that it is closely linked with First Cathedral and its religious mission, that it favors the religious over the irreligious and that it prefers Christians over those that subscribe to other faiths, or no faith at all."

The school board has argued that is selected the church because its size and amenities made it the best option and that it should be allowed to use the space. ACLU attorney David McGuire told the Courant that Tuesday's arguments, which lasted about 90 minutes, focused on whether there were sufficient undisputed facts to support a summary judgment on permanently banning graduation ceremonies at a church or if the case will need to go to trial.

There was no decision at Tuesday's hearing.

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