Prayer and Religion in the Public Schools: What Is, and Is Not, Permitted (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Aug. 18, 2000 |
| Report Number |
RL30649 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
David M. Ackerman, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
A recurring and politically volatile issue in constitutional law concerns the standards imposed
by the
religion and free speech clauses of the First Amendment on government involvement with religious
activities and beliefs in the public schools. In pertinent part the First Amendment provides that
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech...." Because each of these clauses is worded as an
absolute, it is sometimes ambiguous whether governmental involvement in a given situation is a
forbidden establishment of religion or a permissible or required accommodation of free exercise or
speech. Nonetheless, the judicial interpretation of these clauses with respect to religious activities
and expression in the public schools has been fairly consistent.
The Supreme Court has handed down eighteen rulings on various aspects of the matter, and the
state and lower federal courts have added hundreds more. The gravamen of the courts' rulings has
been that government must be neutral regarding religion in the public schools, serving neither as its
agent nor as its adversary. Religious expression that is genuinely private, in turn, has been held to
be constitutionally protected.
Thus, the establishment clause has been held to bar government from using its authority to
inculcate or proselytize about religious faith in the public schools, either directly or indirectly.
Included in this proscription have been sponsorship of devotional exercises during the school day,
at school events such as football games, and at secondary school graduation ceremonies; the
adaptation of the school curriculum to particular religious dogmas; letting privately sponsored
teachers come into the schoolrooms during the school day to give religious instruction; permitting
only sectarian literature such as the Gideon Bible to be distributed by outside groups, and posting
religious affirmations such as the Ten Commandments on classroom walls.
On the other hand, it has been held to be constitutionally permissible for government to give
objective instruction about religion and religious literature as part of a secular program of education;
to sponsor patriotic or ceremonial exercises which incidentally involve professions of faith; to
accommodate private programs of religious instruction given off the public school premises; to
permit student-initiated religious groups to meet in public school facilities during the school day on
the same basis as non-religious student groups; to allow students to distribute religious literature;
to permit religious expression in course work; and to exempt students with religious objections from
particular attendance or curricular requirements. The courts have also affirmed the constitutionality
of religious expression by students during the school day that is genuinely private and self-initiated.
This report summarizes each of the Supreme Court's decisions, gives a detailed overview of
what has been held to be constitutionally permissible and constitutionally forbidden, and describes
two issues as yet unsettled.
