Court Cases Regarding Religion in Schools

The courts both protect and restrict religion in schools.

The First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, provides citizens with numerous protections from the powers of the state. One of these protections, the Establishment Clause, prevents the government from "an establishment of religion." This clause applies to all government institutions -- even to schools -- as determined by the Supreme Court in numerous decisions. Court cases regarding religion in school are subject to meeting requirements in three areas: the Establishment Clause, the Lemon Test and the Equal Access Act.

The Lemon Test

The Lemon Test applies to public schools.

In 1971, the Supreme Court, in their ruling on the case of Lemon versus Kurtzman, set forth a system of three tests to determine whether laws violated the Establishment Clause. Now known as the Lemon Test, this system declares that laws must be secular in their main purpose, must not overly involve government in religion and not hinder nor endorse a particular religion.

Equal Access Act of !984

Congress acted in 1984 to protect the religious freedom of students. The Equal Access Act orders school to allow voluntary student meetings before and after school for religious pursuits if other types of activities are also allowed in school. Only schools not offering any extracurricular activities are exempt from this law.

School Prayer

You may pray in school, just not over the loudspeaker, according to the Supreme Court.

While silent prayer to one's self remains legal, the Supreme Court placed limits on prayer in school in the case of Engel versus Vitale. In 1962, a suit filed by some New York parents, the Engel portion of the case, reached the Supreme Court. The parents, joined by the American Ethical Union, the American Jewish Committee and the Synagogue Council of America, petitioned the Court to suppress the daily nondenominational prayer read in public schools. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that such prayer, even if described as voluntary, was a violation of the Constitution and prohibited it.

More recently, in 2002, the Supreme Court heard the case of the Santa Fe Independent School District versus a group of students designated as Doe. The Court upheld the school's refusal to allow the students to broadcast a prayer over school loudspeakers, ruling that school property could not be used in promoting prayer.

Bibles in School

You may read the Bible in school but not give it away or post verses.

The Supreme Court has spoken several times on Bibles and portions of the Bible in schools. In 1963, the Court decided in the case of Abington School District versus Schempp that daily compulsory Bible reading violated students' religious freedom. Even portions of the Bible have come under the Court's scrutiny. The Court prohibited the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools in the case of Stone versus Graham, decided in 1980. In other court decisions, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1993 ended the practice of distributing Gideon Bibles to fifth graders in public schools in the case of Berger versus Rensselaer Central School Corporation.

Student Organizations

Students' right to form religious groups and organization has been supported through numerous cases decided by the Supreme Court. Their 1981 decision in the case of Widmar versus Vincent upheld the right of student university religious groups to use state school space for meetings. By 1990, the Equal Access Act of 1984 came into play in the case of Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools versus Mergens. The Supreme Court ruled that any public secondary school offering extracurricular activities must also allow students to form Christian clubs.

Student Curriculum

The Scopes Trial of 1925, while not reaching the Supreme Court, made the teaching of evolution acceptable in public schools. In 1968, the Supreme Court did get involved, ruling that Arkansas' law prohibiting the teaching of evolution violated the Establishment Clause in the case of Epperson versus Arkansas. The Supreme Court revisited the issue of evolution in 1987 in a challenge to Louisiana's law requiring that creationism be taught alongside evolution. Using the Establishment Clause, the Court again found that the requirement of teaching creationism in order to teach evolution amounted to the state sanctioning a religious viewpoint.

References

• University of Virginia Library Religious Freedom Page: Court Decisions
• United States Courts: Landmark Supreme Court Decisions about Students
• Oyez.Org: Lemon v. Kurtzman
• UMKC School of Law: Scopes Trial Home Page
• Cornell University Law School: Equal Access Law of 1984
• University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law: Introduction to the Establishment Clause

Resources

• Religious Tolerance.Org: Religion in United States Public Schools
• Cornell School of Law: First Amendment