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I. RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS

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Topics

• Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) – Recitation of school prayer

• Abington School District v. Schempp; Murray v. Curlet, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) – Prayer and Bible reading

• Lemon v. Kurtzman; Earley v. Dicenso, 430 U.S. 602 (1971) – Aid to nonpublic school

• Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987) – the teaching of evolution

• Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 557 (1992) –Prayer at public school ceremonies

• Santa Fe Ind. Sch. Distr. V. Jane Doe, 2000 U.S. LEXIS 4154 (2000) – Student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games

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Public schools & the Establishment Clause

• A state cannot make laws that encourage the regular recitation of prayer in the public school system

• A state cannot make laws that promote the reading of verses from the Bible and the recitation of prayer on school grounds under the supervision of school personnel during school hours (even when attendance to these events is not compulsory).

• A state cannot follow practices/policies to accommodate religion of a group of people, if such policies/practices violate the Lemon test. (How about if the practices/policies do no violate the Lemon test?)

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• Requiring schools to teach creationism (as a theory that explains the origin of the world) is unconstitutional.

• It is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to have clergy led prayer at an official school ceremony, even if attendance to the ceremony is not mandatory. The psychological pressure on the students to attend the event is a critical factor in this kind of cases.

• A public school can start the day with a moment of silence (see p. 40 for an example)

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D. Textbooks

• Unless books are pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable, local school boards may not remove books from school libraries just because the boards want to prescribe what shall be acceptable beliefs (see Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 1982).

• A Bible cannot be removed from the school library because a parent objects to it. However, it seems that a Bible cannot be in the classroom library or used by the teacher during class hours.

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E. Distribution of religious literature

• It seems that religious literature may be allowed to the same extend that other non-curriculum related groups are allowed to distribute their literature (see the Equal Access Act and the interpretation the Supreme Court gave it in Mergens).

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F. Released time

• Students can be released during public school hours to attend religious instruction classes off the school premises (see Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 1952).

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G. Religious holidays

• Holidays that have sufficient secular connotations, besides religious, can be observed by public schools without this to be in violation of the Establishment Clause.

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II. USE OF FACILITIES

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• Equal Access Act of 1984: it is unlawful for a public secondary school that receives federal financial assistance and has created a limited open forum (EXPLAIN) to deny recognition of student-initiated groups on the basis of the religious, political, or philosophical content of the speech at meetings.

• Lamb=s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District, 508 U.S. 384 (1993): Refusing to allow a church or other religious organization to access school property to exhibit a religiously oriented film, when the school district allows other organizations access, violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.