1985 June 4

Alabama “Moment of Silence” Law Unconstitutional

 

The Supreme Court decided on this day that the Alabama “moment of silence” law was clearly intended to promote religion and thus was a violation of the Establishment Clause, in Wallace v. Jaffree.

In their continuing efforts to nullify or evade the Supreme Court decision prohibiting officially sponsored prayer in public schools (see Engel v. Vitale, June 25, 1962), religious conservatives succeeded in getting Alabama to pass a “moment of silence” law, directing that public school teachers open each school day with one-minute period devoted to “meditation or voluntary prayer.”

Ishmael Jaffree, a resident of Mobile, Alabama with three children in the Mobile schools, challenged the constitutionality of the law as an establishment of religion (May 28, 1982). Jaffree also alleged that two of his children had been subject to religious indoctrination, including group prayer led by teachers.

The Court: “ . . . Senator Donald Holmes, inserted into the legislative record—apparently without dissent—a statement indicating that the legislation was an ‘effort to return voluntary prayer’ to the public schools.”

Learn more about Ishmael Jaffree and his family: Peter Irons, The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court(1990)

Read about the history of conflict over religion in American history: Steven Waldman, Sacred Liberty: America’s Long, Bloody, and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom (2019)

Learn more about religion in the schools: https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/religion-and-schools

Listen to the oral argument before the Court: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1984/1984_83_812

Find a Day

Go
Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

Topics

Tell Us What You Think

We want to hear your comments, criticisms and suggestions!