Lawsuit Prompts Fight Over Names School District, Aclu Debate Release Of Prayer Suit Plaintiffs

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Madison School District are still arguing over who should know the names of the mother and child who sued the district in 1990 over graduation prayers.

The ACLU wants a federal judge to reverse an earlier ruling that the names must be revealed to school district lawyers, citing threats against the plaintiffs this summer in a newspaper article.

But the Rexburg-based district contends the ACLU is using the names as “an excuse to advance its own program financed by taxpayers of various school districts.”

District lawyers also say they need the plaintiffs’ names to prepare a proper defense and to determine if the family has standing to challenge a policy allowing student-led prayers at Madison High graduations.

“We do not know if any of the purported plaintiffs actually ever listened to a prayer at graduation originally and we do not have any idea without deposing them how they, as opposed to some ACLU attorney, interpret what has transpired recently at graduation,” the district wrote in a legal brief.

However, the ACLU says U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill can decide on that question without school district lawyers learning the plaintiffs’ names. The court has ruled that in any event the names would not be released to the public or the Madison School Board.

No date has been set for a hearing on the arguments.