SCHOOL PRAYER (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Dec. 1, 1998 |
| Report Number |
96-846 |
| Authors |
David M. Ackerman, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
For at least a century and a half the issue of school prayer has periodically convulsed the body
politic. But only in recent times -- since 1962 when the Supreme Court in Engel v. Vitale
held
government sponsorship of devotional activities in the public schools to be unconstitutional -- has
Congress become persistently involved.
Since that decision Congress has considered a variety of measures to promote or permit
devotional activities in the public schools: (1) Constitutional amendments --
Numerous proposals
have been introduced in every Congress since Engel to overturn or limit the Court's
decisions by
amending the Constitution, and numerous hearings have been held. The House has voted on a
constitutional amendment twice (in 1971 and 1998), the Senate four times (in 1966, 1970, and twice
in 1984). But only in the Senate vote in 1970 did such a proposal garner the two-thirds majority
necessary for adoption, and that vote was perceived less as a vote on school prayer than as a vote to
kill the measure to which the school prayer proposal was attached -- the Equal Rights Amendment.
(2) Limitations on federal court jurisdiction -- Proposals were introduced in every
Congress from
the 93d through the 103d to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over the school prayer issue. The
Senate voted in favor of such a measure the first time it came up for a vote in 1979; but in 1982,
1985, and 1988 it rejected the proposal by increasingly wide margins. (3) Equal access
proposals
-- Following the Supreme Court's 1981 decision in Widmar v. Vincent holding student-
initiated
religious groups to be entitled to meet on the same basis as other student-initiated groups at public
colleges and universities, Congress in 1984 enacted the "Equal Access Act" extending the principle
to student-initiated religious groups at the public secondary school level. (4)
Appropriations riders
-- Since fiscal 1981 Congress has added a prophylactic rider (the Walker amendment) to the annual
appropriations bills for the Department of Education barring funds from being used "to prevent the
implementation of programs of voluntary prayer and meditation in the public schools." (5)
Cutoff
of funds -- Since 1984 both the House and the Senate have voted on various amendments
to cut off
federal education funds from state and local educational agencies that prevent individuals from
participating in voluntary prayer. In 1994 Congress enacted the Kassebaum amendment and
converted several school prayer amendments to the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act" into a
mandate to state and local educational agencies similar to the Walker amendment. (6)
Sense-of-the-Congress resolutions -- Measures to express Congress' views on
what devotional activities remain
permissible in the public schools under the Court's rulings have frequently been offered as
alternatives to constitutional amendments. The Senate has rejected two such proposals (in 1966) and
approved one (in 1994), but none have become law.
This report provides a Congress-by-Congress review of legislative action on the school prayer
issue from 1962 through 1998.
