Ernest Istook: “You can have the initiative for prayer that must come, not from government, but from the students, because following…”

“You can have the initiative for prayer that must come, not from government, but from the students, because following that, we have the requirement that it says, ``Government shall not prescribe school prayers.'' That means two things. You do not prescribe or dictate that they must occur. Secondly, you do not prescribe or select the content of those prayers. Is it possible, for example, let us take a case such as the graduation case in Rhode Island, the Lee v. Weisman case, Rabbi Leslie Gutterman was invited to offer the prayer. Should students, on some occasion, invite someone else to join the prayer? Yes. That could be permitted. But the initiative must come from the students, not from government. Let me tell you a personal story that relates to that, because I recall, in 1963, when I was a student in junior high school in Fort Worth, Texas. That day, our whole school had let out briefly to walk down to the highway to see the motorcade where the President of the United States was passing by as he was going to downtown Fort Worth to Carswell Air Force Base and passing our community to do so to get on to Airforce One and make a quick hop over to Dallas where he was shot and killed. That was November 22nd, 1963.”