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School Prayer Amendment


The School Prayer Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution intended by its proponents to protect the right of the students if they wish, to voluntarily pray in schools, although opponents argue it allows for government sponsored prayer.

In the cases Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the United States Supreme Court ruled that government mandated school prayer is unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. However voluntary prayer is not unconstitutional.

The history of school prayer amendment began in 1962 with the Supreme Court case of Engel v. Vitale. A New York policy required schools to begin each day with a word of prayer. Regarding this case, Justice Hugo Black wrote “… the constitutional prohibition against laws respecting an establishment of religion must at least mean that in this country it is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite as a part of a religious program carried on by government.”

The next year, a similar case arose: Abington Township School District v. Schempp. The effect of this incident was the prohibition of school officials from organizing or leading prayers as well as devotional Bible reading in public schools. Abington v. Schempp required that school faculties should neither promote nor degrade religion. The Supreme Court next examined school prayer in 1985 with the case of Wallace v. Jaffree. A change to Alabama’s moment-of-silence law included a requirement that the moment of silence must be for “meditation or voluntary prayer.” The Court saw the change as government promotion of prayer in the schools, and overturned the change to the law. The justices explained that a moment of silence is appropriate, but not for any religious purpose.

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`SECTION 1. To secure the people's right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience: The people's right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, or traditions on public property, including schools, shall not be infringed. The Government shall not require any person to join in prayer or other religious activity, initiate or designate school prayers, discriminate against religion, or deny equal access to a benefit on account of religion.'.


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