Voices from around the web are weighing in on the Enfield graduation-First Cathedral-ACLU-Family Institute of Connecticut legal ruckus.
Don Pesci at Connecticut Political Reporter: ""[I]t is a bit of a stretch to conclude that anyone participating in the graduation ceremony at First Cathedral would have been engaged in an unconstitutional religious event...Buildings, by themselves, are not magical structures, and one need not fear that persons who come in contact with them will be, so to speak, religiously polluted."
Rick Green at CT Confidential: "Who wins here? Certainly not Enfield. The Family Institute and the American Center for Law & Justice however, get what they want: national attention and a wedge issue they can use to both fundraise and promote their cause. Students gain nothing, except a perverted lesson that even their own local elected leaders can work to undermine their constitutional rights - in the name of religious liberty."
The Family Institute of Connecticut: "Judge [Janet] Hall wrote that graduation at First Cathedral would constitute an 'endorsement' of religion, defined by a previous case as "sending a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.
"In fact, it was Judge Hall who just coveyed that message with her ruling--that FIC and First Cathedral are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and that the despisers of religion are insiders, favored members of the political community."
Susan Campbell, Fear, Itself: "We can discuss this until -- well -- Jesus comes back, but this is a good decision. There are plenty of other, secular venues in which to hold a graduation. First Cathedral does good work. This is not a slam against them, but holding an important ceremony like a graduation in a religious setting was a bad idea from the start."
Diana's Little Corner of the Nutmeg State: "To me this is not about separation of church and state, but is about respecting other people's religious beliefs."