Can a Hail Mary and the Lord's Prayer Mix?

No one finds it particularly objectionable when professional football players huddle on the field for a semi-private pregame prayer. But when a similar prayer is broadcast from the bleachers of a public high school football game, fallout becomes more likely — even in football-mad, religiously conservative Texas. Witness the events of 1995 in Santa Fe, Texas: The families of two students at the local high school filed suit against the district, claiming the pregame prayers blaring out of the school's public address system violated the First Amendment by "creating a pervasive religious atmosphere." Those families are not feeling especially popular in Santa Fe, where prayer at school athletic events is an overwhelmingly popular tradition. Their discomfort is likely to increase Wednesday and over the next few months, as the U.S. Supreme Court reviews their case.

This is the first time since 1992 — when the Court banned clergy-led prayer at graduations — that the Justices have considered a school prayer case, and legal analysts are predicting a profound impact on school systems nationwide. What separates this case from the 1992 case, say the defendants, is that football games are a voluntary, extracurricular activity that those offended by prayer are free to skip. In addition, they say, Santa Fe students vote on whether to have the prayer. The opponents say that forcing students to choose between being subjected to a religious event and facing potential ostracism by not attending a game in a football-crazy community is inherently unfair.

"This is going to be one of the most important decisions of the Court's term," says TIME legal reporter Alain Sanders. The case, Sanders says, involves two opposing implications of the First Amendment. If the football game prayers carry the approval of the school authorities — as the use of a school-funded public address system would seem to indicate — the Court may outlaw the practice as a violation of the First Amendment ban on government involvement in religion. If, on the other hand, the Court finds the prayer to be wholly and voluntarily initiated by students, the Justices may decide the practice is protected by the First Amendment right to free speech. First Amendment watchers are going to be looking at this case intently — when the Supreme Court delivered its 1992 judgment against prayers during school graduations, it ruled by just one vote. This case is likely to be similarly close.