320
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
v. Chambers, 463 U. S. 783 (1983), and Larson v. Valente, 456 U. S. 228 (1982)]"). Indeed, in Lee v. Weisman, 505 U. S. 577 (1992), an opinion upon which the Court relies heavily today, we mentioned, but did not feel compelled to apply, the Lemon test. See also Agostini v. Felton, 521 U. S. 203, 233 (1997) (stating that Lemon's entanglement test is merely "an aspect of the inquiry into a statute's effect"); Hunt v. McNair, 413 U. S. 734, 741 (1973) (stating that the Lemon factors are "no more than helpful signposts").
Even if it were appropriate to apply the Lemon test here, the district's student-message policy should not be invalidated on its face. The Court applies Lemon and holds that the "policy is invalid on its face because it establishes an improper majoritarian election on religion, and unquestionably has the purpose and creates the perception of encouraging the delivery of prayer at a series of important school events." Ante, at 317. The Court's reliance on each of these conclusions misses the mark.
First, the Court misconstrues the nature of the "majoritarian election" permitted by the policy as being an election on "prayer" and "religion." 2 See ante, at 314, 317. To the contrary, the election permitted by the policy is a two-fold process whereby students vote first on whether to have a student speaker before football games at all, and second, if the students vote to have such a speaker, on who that speaker will be. App. 104-105. It is conceivable that the election could become one in which student candidates campaign on platforms that focus on whether or not they will
2 The Court attempts to support its misinterpretation of the nature of the election process by noting that the district stipulated to facts about the most recent election. See ante, at 317, n. 24. Of course, the most recent election was conducted under the previous policy—a policy that required an elected student speaker to give a pregame invocation. See App. 65-66, 99-100. There has not been an election under the policy at issue here, which expressly allows the student speaker to give a message as opposed to an invocation.
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