No prayer at academy

Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to consider an appeal to reinstate mealtime prayers at Virginia Military Institute, a state-run college. Virginia officials argued that the invocations were a valued tradition. The high court also ruled against VMI in 1996, forcing it to end its all-male admissions policy. “A state institution may not endorse particular religious beliefs,” said Rebecca Glenberg of the ACLU. “That constitutional principle has been clearly established for a long time.” But in a scathing dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia complained that his colleagues were forcing VMI to see “another of its traditions abolished by this court,” without so much as a hearing.

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