RELIGION AND THE

AMERICAN

CONSTITUTIONAL

EXPERIMENT Chapter 8

Religion and Public Education

Religion and Education

More than two-thirds of the Supreme Court

establishment clause cases concern religion

and education.

The cases concerning the place of religion in

public education fall into two phases:

1. 1948-1987: the Court applied a consistent

separationist logic.

2. Beginning in 1981 and escalating after 1990:

the Court used a new “equal access” logic.

Separationist Cases (1948-1987)

The Court used a strict separationist reading of the establishment clause in its first modern cases on religion and public education.

The famous 1925 Scopes monkey trial in Tennessee featured William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow fighting valiantly over the place of creation and evolution in the public school.

After 1947, the Supreme Court systematically barred religion from the public schools.

Separationist Cases

McCollum v. Board of Education (1948)

Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Abington Township School District v. Schempp (1963)

Stone v. Graham (1980)

Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)

Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)

Lee v. Weisman (1992)

Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000)

Equal Access Cases (1981-2001)

The decisions in the cases on the place of religion in the public schools – from McCollum (1948) to Santa Fe (2000) are among the Court’s most consistent applications of the First Amendment religion clauses.

The results are unwavering – religion is not permitted in the public school during instructional time or at school-sponsored events, save as an object of study in an appropriate course.

Equal Access Cases (1981-2000)

However, there are concerns with these public

schools cases:

1. The need to educate students about religion.

2. To protect the student’s rights to religious

expression.

These concerns have helped drive the development

of a new line of equal access cases.

Equal Access Cases

Widmar v. Vincent (1981)

Board of Education v. Mergens (1990)

Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free

School District (1993)

Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995)

Good News Club v. Milford Central School

(2001)