Ishmael Jaffree Objects to Alabama Schools’ “Moment of Silence”
In an attempt to permit some form of prayer in its public schools, the state of Alabama enacted a law requiring a “moment of silence” in classrooms at the start of each school day.
Ishmael Jaffree filed a complaint on this day on behalf of his three children, challenging the constitutionality of the law.
The Supreme Court, in Wallace v. Jaffree on June 4, 1985, found the law an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The “moment of silence” law was one of several legislative attempts by the Religious Right to evade the intent of the landmark 1962 Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale holding that school-sponsored prayer in public school violate the Establishment Clause. One other intent involved state laws requiring or allowing the teaching of “scientific creationism,” the argument that scientific evidence supported the creation story as it appears in the Book of Genesis in the Bible.
Learn more about Ishmael Jaffree’s story: Peter Irons, The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court (1990); Chapter 15, pp. 355-378.
Learn more about the Establishment Clause: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/category/religion
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)
Religion in the Public Schools; A Guide for Administrators and Teachers: http://www.aclu-tn.org/pdfs/briefer_religion_in_public_schools.pdf