Law Commons^™

Proposed Guidelines For Student Religious Speech And Observance In Public Schools, Jay Alan Sekulow, James Henderson, John Tuskey

Mercer Law Review

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion .... " The First Amendment also provides, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.. ." Perhaps no question has so bedeviled American courts in this century as that of how to reconcile these two provisions in this nation's public schools. Questions that arise include: Does allowing students to pray, share their faith with other students, or even discuss their religion at the public schools constitute an "establishment of religion?" May public schools go …

First Amendment Facelift?: Rehnquist Court Crafts New Scrutiny Level For Content- Neutral, Speech Restricting Injunctions In Madsen V. Women's Health Center, Richard A. Griggs

Mercer Law Review

Recently, in Madsen v. Women's Health Center, the United States Supreme Court evaluated the constitutionality of an injunction that had completely prohibited antiabortion protestors from coming within a thirty-six foot "speech-free" buffer zone around an abortion clinic. Petitioners, Judy Madsen, Ed Martin, and Shirley Hobbs, are officers of Rescue America and members of Operation Rescue. The predominant goal of these two antiabortion, activist organizations is to shut down abortion clinics throughout the country. Respondents, Women's Health Center, Inc., Aware Woman Center for Choice, Inc., EPOC Clinic, Inc., and Central Florida Women's Health Organization, Inc., operate abortion clinics throughout central …

The First Amendment: Has The Supreme Court Overlooked Its Role As Guardian Of Our Freedom By Failing To Distinguish Between Real Threat And Mere Shadow?, Jimmy Daniels

Mercer Law Review

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion "

This single phrase, referred to as the Establishment Clause, has created much confusion among legal scholars throughout the latter part of the Twentieth Century and particularly the past two decades. This confusion, in my opinion, can be attributed to historical ignorance, misapplication, or both.

Graduation Prayer After Lee V. Weisman: A Cautionary Tale, Stephen B. Pershing

Mercer Law Review

Loudoun County, Virginia, is a lush expanse of fields and rolling hills at the edge of the burgeoning Washington metropolis. Its growing population is heavily white, affluent, and Christian. In 1993, a year after the Supreme Court's decision in Lee v. Weisman, the county not surprisingly became an arena for the resurgence of a familiar prayer in America's public schools.

This Article tells the story of the Loudoun County graduation prayer litigation, and tries to set the case in context. It ponders doctrinal questions from an unabashedly separationist perspective, but it offers words of caution for both sides in the …

Board Of Education Of Kiryas Joel Village School District V. Grumet: A Missed Opportunity For The Supreme Court To Clarify Establishment Clause Analysis, John Kevin Moore

Mercer Law Review

The village of Kiryas Joel in Orange County, New York is populated entirely by practitioners of Satmar Hasidim, a strict form of Judaism. The Satmar Hasidics, incorporated the village in 1977, and the boundaries included only the 320 acres owned and inhabited by Satmar Hasidics. Two private, gender-segregated religious schools provided the education for most of the village's children. However, these schools were not able to offer special services to handicapped children who are entitled under state and federal law to special education services even when enrolled in private schools. Thus, in 1984 the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District began providing …

The Threat To The American Idea Of Religious Liberty, Robert S. Peck

Mercer Law Review

With the Supreme Court unlikely to overturn its public school prayer decisions, those who seek a greater religious presence in education have launched two complementary strategies intended to expand existing guarantees of school-related worship rights.

The first strategy is a renewed effort to pass a school prayer constitutional amendment utilizing the political muscle that conservative religious interests demonstrated in the 1994 elections and which resulted in the first Republican controlled Congress in forty years. The amendment movement dangerously attempts to authorize the use of government offices for purposes of religious indoctrination. Though previous efforts at authorizing public school prayer through …

The Ironic State Of Religious Liberty In America, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Mercer Law Review

The constitutionality of organized graduation or classroom prayer in public schools is an issue of continuing controversy in the United States. There are, of course, numerous policy arguments for and against allowing prayer in public schools, but I will be focusing on the constitutional issues and consequently will have rather less to say about policy. (I will disclose, however, that as a matter of policy, I think there are problems with public schools' organizing and sponsoring group prayer as part of graduation ceremonies or classroom activities; it would seem that Mr. Peck, Mr. Sekulow, and I all agree on that, …