Wallace v. Jaffree | |
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Decided June 4, 1985 | |
Full case name | Wallace, Governor of Alabama, et al. v. Jaffree, et al. |
Citations | 472 U.S. 38 (more)
105 S. Ct. 2479; 86 L. Ed. 2d 29; 1985 U.S. LEXIS 91; 53 U.S.L.W. 4665
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Prior history | Appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit |
Holding | |
State endorsement of prayer activities in schools is prohibited by the First Amendment. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Stevens, joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell |
Concurrence | Powell |
Concurrence | O'Connor |
Dissent | Rehnquist |
Dissent | Burger |
Dissent | White |
Laws applied | |
U.S. Const. amend. I |
Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), was a United States Supreme Court case deciding on the issue of silent school prayer.
An Alabama law authorized teachers to set aside one minute at the start of each day for a moment for "meditation or voluntary prayer."
Ishmael Jaffree, an American citizen, was a resident of Mobile County, Alabama and a parent of three students who attended school in the Mobile County Public School System; two of the three children were in the second grade and the third was in kindergarten. His youngest was being made fun of by peers because he refused to say the prayers. On May 28, 1982, Jaffree brought suit naming the Mobile County School Board, various school officials, and the minor plaintiffs' three teachers as defendants. Jaffree sought a declaratory judgment and an injunction restraining the defendants from "maintaining or allowing the maintenance of regular religious prayer services or other forms of religious observances in the Mobile County Public Schools in violation of the First Amendment as made applicable to states by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.