AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN HERITAGE HOMEPAGE
Week 3 - How we got off Track !
43. The trial court denied Jane Roe relief but on appeal the lower court's decision was
overturned and finally it was argued in the Supreme Court on December 13, 1971, and
then reargued on October 11, 1972. The court issued its opinion, backed by a 7-2 majority
on January 22, 1973 with Justices White and Rehnquist dissenting. On the same day, the
same 7-2 majority issued a similar ruling in the lesser-known case of Doe v. Bolton, (1973),
involving Georgia's abortion laws.
44. In Stone v. Graham (1980) the Supremes declared, �If the posted copies of the Ten
Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to
read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerated and obey, the Commandments. However
desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state
objective under the Establishment Clause.� Thus outlawing the display of the Ten
Commandments in classrooms in Kentucky and across the country.
45. Wallace v. Jaffree � 1985, here the Court returned to the issue of prayer in schools in
Wallace, but it wasn't school prayer akin to that in Engel or Schempp. Rather, the Court
was asked to address the question of whether silent prayer and/or meditation in a public
school was constitutional. Alabama had passed a law that authorized each school to begin
its day with a one-minute period of silence "for meditation or voluntary prayer," and a
single parent objected to public schools attempting to get back in the prayer business.
46. A 6-3 majority overturned the law, finding that Alabama had violated the dictates in Lemon.
The Court saw no secular legislative purpose behind mandating "prayer" in any form, silent
or otherwise. Parents who wanted their children to pray would have to arrange for that to
take place at home.
47. Bowers v. Hardwick was a 1986 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.
By a 5-4 vote, the Bowers decision upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia anti-sodomy
law that criminalized oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults.
48. The majority opinion in Bowers, written by Justice Byron White, framed the legal question
as whether the constitution creates "a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy."
Justice White's opinion for the majority answered this question in the negative, stating that
"to claim that a right to engage in such conduct is 'deeply rooted in this Nation's history
and tradition' or 'implicit in the concept of ordered liberty' is, at best, facetious." A short
concurring opinion by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger emphasized historical negative
attitudes toward sodomy, quoting Sir William Blackstone's characterization of sodomy as
"a crime not fit to be named."
49. In Lee v. Weisman (1992), the Court ruled that clergy may not lead prayers at public-
school events. At issue was a Rhode Island school district's policy of inviting clergy to
give prayer invocations at high school graduation ceremonies. Clergymen received not only
an audience for their message, but also prayer guidelines from the school. One family
objected, and with backing from the ACLU, filed suit to stop the practice. They claimed
that a school-sponsored prayer was a clear violation of the Establishment Clause, as the
authority of the school was involved in the religious content.
50. President George H.W. Bush weighed in on the case, asking the Court to overturn Lemon,
since its application was having far-reaching effects on many long-standing traditions that
included religious aspects.
51. A 5-4 majority disagreed with the President. Justice Kennedy wrote in his opinion that
the prayers were such an obvious First Amendment violation that the Lemon test was
unnecessary. Justice Souter's concurring opinion indicated that the outcome might have
been different had the prayer come from a student, and was his or her own prayer, rather
than a school-sanctioned adult speaker.