High court allows closing schools on Good Friday

Tuesday, January 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court is letting Maryland require public schools to close on Good Friday, but the legitimacy of that law and Good Friday laws in more than a dozen states remains clouded.

The justices, acting without comment Tuesday, rejected an appeal in which a retired Maryland teacher said the school-closings law violates constitutionally required separation of church and state.

In separate action, the nation's highest court turned away appeals by Quakers who say the Internal Revenue Service violates their religious freedom by charging fees and interest for delays in paying the portion of their federal tax that funds the military.

Among the states with Good Friday laws, only Maryland, Illinois and North Dakota require all public schools to close on that day each year. A federal appeals court struck down the Illinois law.

The justices still have before them a challenge to an Indiana law designating Good Friday a state holiday. They have not yet said whether they will grant full review to that dispute.

"This is not going away," said Dwight Sullivan, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Baltimore. "You have the Constitution being applied differently in different states."

The Maryland law "sends the message to non-Christians that the state finds Good Friday, and thus Christianity, to be a religion worth honoring while their religion or nonreligion is not of equal importance," contended an appeal by former teacher Judith Koenick.

"That message is particularly significant in this case because it is being sent to schoolchildren," she said.

Lower courts rejected her argument. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the long weekend's legitimate purpose is to avoid
anticipated high absenteeism among teachers and students on the days surrounding Easter, the holiest of Christian holidays.

Good Friday, always two days before Easter Sunday, commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.

Montgomery County schools also are closed on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the
Jewish new year. Those policy decisions are based not on anticipated absenteeism but on findings that large numbers of students would be absent if schools were open on those days.

Maryland law does not require school closings for any Jewish holiday. State law designates these public school holidays: Thanksgiving and the day after; Christmas Eve through Jan. 1; the Friday before Easter through the Monday after; Memorial Day; and primary and general election days.

State and federal courts are divided, the justices were told, over the constitutionality of laws or governmental practices that deal with Good Friday.

Lawyers for Ms. Koenick urged the court "to bring order to the lower courts' chaotic decisions concerning governmental recognition of Good Friday."

But lawyers for the Montgomery County Board of Education said the four-day holiday "is anchored around the increasingly
secularized holiday of Easter, which is a traditional time for Marylanders, like many other Americans, to begin Easter-related
travel."

The justices were told that 12 states have Good Friday laws:Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Wisconsin had such a law, but it was ruled unconstitutional in 1996.

California and Kentucky have laws establishing part of Good Friday as a holiday for government employees, and in Texas the day is an "optional holiday" for state employees.

In the Quakers' case, the court turned away arguments by three Religious Society of Friends members from New England and
Pennsylvania. The action let the IRS continue charging late fees and interest in addition to their back taxes.

The appeals filed on behalf of Gordon and Edith Browne, who have homes in New Hampshire and Vermont, and Priscilla Lippincott Adams of Philadelphia did not contest having to pay 100 percent of their
tax bill when the tax agency forces their hand.

Instead, the Quakers cited a "religious hardship" and argued that they should be able to pay the back taxes without any penalties or interest.

They said that as a result of religious faith and study, they cannot voluntarily pay that portion of their federal income taxes which they determine are dedicated to war and war-related activities.

In rejecting those arguments, lower courts relied on a 1982 Supreme Court decision that said, "The tax system could not function if denominations were allowed to challenge (it) because tax payments were spent in a manner that violates their religious belief."