The Story of the School Prayer Decisions: Civil Religion under Assault
FIRST AMENDMENT STORIES, Richard Garnett, Andrew Koppelman, eds., Foundation Press, 2011
36 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2011
Date Written: June 3, 2011
Abstract
This chapter, from Foundation Press's forthcoming "First Amendment Stories" volume, traces the background, resolution, and impact of the Supreme Court's first school prayer decisions, Engel v. Vitale and Abington School Dist. v. Schempp. Among other things, the chapter traces the relation of the Regents' Prayer, struck down in Engel, to the nondenominational theistic civil religion of the 1950s, and the relation of constitutional attacks on the prayer to various criticisms of that civil religion from both religious and nonreligious quarters.
Keywords: First Amendment, Establishment Clause, Religious Freedom, Separation of Church and State, School Prayer, Civil Religion, Religious Minorities
JEL Classification: I20
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation