I. RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS

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I. RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS
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Topics

• Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) Recitation
  of school prayer
• Abington School District v. Schempp Murray v.
  Curlet, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) Prayer and Bible
  reading
• Lemon v. Kurtzman Earley v. Dicenso, 430 U.S.
  602 (1971) Aid to nonpublic school
• Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987) the
  teaching of evolution
• Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 557 (1992) Prayer at
  public school ceremonies
• Santa Fe Ind. Sch. Distr. V. Jane Doe, 2000 U.S.
  LEXIS 4154 (2000) Student-led,
  student-initiated prayer at football games

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Public schools the Establishment Clause

• A state cannot make laws that encourage the
  regular recitation of prayer in the public school
  system
• A state cannot make laws that promote the reading
  of verses from the Bible and the recitation of
  prayer on school grounds under the supervision of
  school personnel during school hours (even when
  attendance to these events is not compulsory).
• A state cannot follow practices/policies to
  accommodate religion of a group of people, if
  such policies/practices violate the Lemon test.
  (How about if the practices/policies do no
  violate the Lemon test?)

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• Requiring schools to teach creationism (as a
  theory that explains the origin of the world) is
  unconstitutional.
• It is a violation of the Establishment Clause of
  the First Amendment to have clergy led prayer at
  an official school ceremony, even if attendance
  to the ceremony is not mandatory. The
  psychological pressure on the students to attend
  the event is a critical factor in this kind of
  cases.
• A public school can start the day with a moment
  of silence (see p. 40 for an example)

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D. Textbooks

• Unless books are pervasively vulgar or
  educationally unsuitable, local school boards may
  not remove books from school libraries just
  because the boards want to prescribe what shall
  be acceptable beliefs (see Board of Education,
  Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v.
  Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 1982).
• A Bible cannot be removed from the school library
  because a parent objects to it. However, it seems
  that a Bible cannot be in the classroom library
  or used by the teacher during class hours.

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E. Distribution of religious literature

• It seems that religious literature may be allowed
  to the same extend that other non-curriculum
  related groups are allowed to distribute their
  literature (see the Equal Access Act and the
  interpretation the Supreme Court gave it in
  Mergens).

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F. Released time

• Students can be released during public school
  hours to attend religious instruction classes off
  the school premises (see Zorach v. Clauson, 343
  U.S. 306, 1952).

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G. Religious holidays

• Holidays that have sufficient secular
  connotations, besides religious, can be observed
  by public schools without this to be in violation
  of the Establishment Clause.

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II. USE OF FACILITIES
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• Equal Access Act of 1984 it is unlawful for a
  public secondary school that receives federal
  financial assistance and has created a limited
  open forum (EXPLAIN) to deny recognition of
  student-initiated groups on the basis of the
  religious, political, or philosophical content of
  the speech at meetings.
• Lambs Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free
  School District, 508 U.S. 384 (1993) Refusing to
  allow a church or other religious organization to
  access school property to exhibit a religiously
  oriented film, when the school district allows
  other organizations access, violates the Free
  Speech Clause of the First Amendment.