Four years later, in Zorach v. Clauson, the court upheld an arrangement by which public schools excused students during the school day so they could attend religious classes away from school property. The department revised the guidelines in 2003, placing somewhat greater emphasis on the rights of students to speak or associate for religious purposes. In these and other decisions, the court has repeatedly stressed that the Constitution prohibits public schools from indoctrinating children in religion. The Legal Status of Religious Organizations in Civil Lawsuits For now, cases like Harper illustrate the difficulties for school officials in regulating student expression. For example, in Fleming v. But it refused to distribute fliers for the after-school programs of the Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland, which are not held on school property. The department allows the display of a menorah as a symbol for Hanukkah and a star and crescent to evoke Ramadan but permits the display of only secular symbols of Christmas, such as a Christmas tree; it explicitly forbids the display of a Christmas nativity scene in public schools. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing for a 2- 1 majority and citing Tinker, argued that students’ constitutional rights may be limited to prevent harming the rights of other students. Ordinarily, opponents of homosexuality could not confidently cite the Establishment Clause as the basis for a complaint, because the curriculum typically would not advance a particular religious perspective. Justice Alito also disputed the majority’s contention that CLS, even without official recognition, can still effectively operate on campus, noting that the administration has ignored requests by the group to secure rooms for meetings and tables at campus events. The court ruled that no reasonable observer would perceive Wigg’s after-school role as being carried out on behalf of the school district, even though the club met on school property. In its first such case, McCollum v. Board of Education (1948), the high court invalidated the practice of having religious instructors from different denominations enter public schools to offer religious lessons during the school day to students whose parents requested them. Before state legislatures passed laws allowing home schooling, parents seeking to educate their children at home were often unsuccessful in the courts. The most enduring and controversial issue related to school-sponsored religious activities is classroom prayer. Religious expression in the classroom continues to be a contentious issue, with strong case law supporting both sides. Schools must be careful when allowing students a forum in which to express themselves. The courts have grappled with the meaning of the Free Exercise Clause. Engel has been the subject of intense debate. However, the Montgomery County curriculum included materials in teacher guides that disparaged some religious teachings on homosexuality as theologically flawed and contrasted those teachings with what the guide portrayed as the more acceptable and tolerant views of some other faiths. The groups, in turn, hired their own teachers, in some cases Bible college students or members of the clergy who did not meet state accreditation standards. The 4th Circuit, however, found unconstitutional the practice of daily prayer at supper at the Virginia Military Institute. First, the United States Supreme Court has been particularly mindful of the coercive risks associated with organized religious expression in the public schools. The Ohio Supreme Court upheld his firing in a 4-3 vote. The ACLU of New Jersey (2007) filed a religious discrimination case on behalf of a Muslim student who had to choose between following his religious beliefs that forbid him from entering buildings with foreign religious symbols and attending his public high school graduation that was scheduled to … For instance, about four-in-ten public school students say they routinely see other students praying before sporting events, according to the survey. Congress responded by passing the Equal Access Act of 1984. And about half of U.S. teens in public schools (53%) say they often or sometimes see other students wearing jewelry or clothing with religious symbols. • Freedom of expression in public schools is legally defendable and worthy of the effort to fight discrimination. Public Schools' Obligations. Many civil libertarians and others, meanwhile, voice concern that conservative Christians and others are trying to impose their values on students. Circuit Court of Appeals considered a New York City Department of Education policy regulating the types of symbols displayed during the holiday seasons of various religions. For instance, in Parents for Privacy v. Dallas School District No. Circuit Court of Appeals reached a similar conclusion in a case involving a public high school in Massachusetts that held a mandatory assembly devoted to AIDS and sex education. 1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA Federal courts,the civil libertarians point out,have consistently interpreted the First Amendment’s prohibition on the establishment of religion to forbid state sponsorship of prayer and most other religious activities in public schools. Writing for the dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. argued that by affirming Hastings’ policy, the majority sacrificed core First Amendment principles in favor of political correctness and armed “public educational institutions with a handy weapon for suppressing the speech of unpopular groups.” In addition, Alito asserted, the majority overlooked certain evidence demonstrating that Hastings had singled out CLS because of its beliefs. Public schools may not teach religion, although teaching about religion in a secular context is permitted. • Historically, Christian principles within the school system were deemed to be appropriate and acceptable. Instead, the 5-4 majority handed down a narrowly tailored decision that upheld the specific policy of Hastings Law School – the “all-comers” policy – as long as it is applied in an evenhanded manner. In concurring opinions, however, four justices expressed the view that the Constitution permitted recitation of the pledge – with the phrase “under God” – in public schools. In many cases, public school teachers and administrators would like to permit more religious expression in public schools if they only knew that the most recent Supreme Court cases allow it. Two early but important Supreme Court cases defined the ability of students to not take part in some public school activities based on First Amendment religious objections. Freedom of religion and religious expression, especially within the public school system, has been a highly contested issue for decades. And even in public institutions, there is little debate about the right of individual students, teachers and other school employees to practice their religion – by, say, praying before lunch or wearing religious clothing or symbols. The U.S. Supreme Court has decided several cases involving the First Amendment rights of public school students, but the most often cited are Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), Bethel School District No. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution contains two clauses that affect this issue: the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. With Engel and Schempp, the court outlined the constitutional standard for prohibiting school-sponsored religious expression, a doctrine the court has firmly maintained. “As secular organizations continue to bully and threaten an increasing number of state, local and county institutions to do away with prayer by convincing them it is unconstitutional, there has been a spike in the number of school districts, city councils, and other government entities that are dropping the time-honored tradition.”, A California state bill its sponsors say will prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at private universities is threatening to expose faith-based schools to enormous legal threats, school officials warn…. This case raises vital questions about the nature of discrimination under the provisions of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 (the Equality Act) as well as the extent of protection afforded to cultural and religious What has the Supreme Court said about free expression? At the time of its school prayer decisions in the early 1960s, the Supreme Court had never ruled on whether students have the right of free speech inside public schools. This report includes sections on school prayer, the pledge of allegiance, religion in school curricula, and the religious liberty rights of students and teachers. In later decisions, lower courts recognized religious opt-outs in other relatively narrow circumstances. This report was written by Ira C. Lupu, F. Elwood and Eleanor Davis  Professor Emeritus of Law at George Washington University Law School; David Masci, Senior Writer/Editor at Pew Research Center; and Robert W. Tuttle, David R. and Sherry Kirschner Berz Research Professor of Law & Religion at George Washington University Law School. The court rejected this defense, ruling that the university had allowed other student groups to use university property and that the complaining group could not be excluded on the basis of its religious viewpoint. The two clauses say, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Before those two court decisions, courts had applied the religion clauses only to actions of the federal government. Watch for more stories and additional ways to take action. The Establishment Clause prohibits the federal government, or any state, from passing laws that establish an official religion; or any action that appears as preferring one religion over another. The legal issues surrounding student religious expression in the public schools rest on competing, if not inconsistent, theories. In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the court upheld the right of public school students who were Jehovah’s Witnesses to refuse to salute the American flag. Federal courts, they point out, consistently have interpreted the First Amendment’s prohibition on the establishment of religion to forbid state sponsorship of prayer and most other religious activities in public schools. Schools may neither favor nor disfavor students or groups on the basis of their religious identities. 2 SPECIFIC ISSUES & QUESTIONS Frequently, judges have concluded that these courses are thinly disguised efforts to teach a particular understanding of the New Testament. Some school officials responded to the mix of student liberties and restraints by forbidding certain forms of student-initiated religious expression such as the saying of grace before lunch in the school cafeteria, student-sponsored gatherings for prayer at designated spots on school property, or student proselytizing aimed at other students. If you believe that public school teachers, coaches, or administrators are violating your child’s constitutional rights to religious liberty—either by promoting a religion your family doesn’t share or by infringing on your child’s right to religious expression—you may want to speak with a lawyer. As a result, school boards have lost virtually every fight over curriculum changes designed to challenge evolution, including disclaimers in biology textbooks. The court emphasized that school principals need such authority to prevent potential violations of the Establishment Clause and to protect students against a religiously coercive atmosphere. The courts have also ruled, however, that attempts by schools to extend that control into non-instructional hours constitute an overly broad intrusion on the teachers’ religious freedom. When they are acting as representatives of a public school system, however, courts have said their rights are constrained by the Establishment Clause. In 1844, fighting broke out between Protestants and Catholics in Philadelphia; a number of people died in the violence and several Catholic churches were burned. Students may not engage in religious harassment of others or compel other students to participate in religious expression, and schools may control aggressive and unwanted proselytizing. (The new Pew Research Center survey finds that one-in-ten religiously affiliated teens in public school leave the school for religious activities. (1962). The Supreme Court eventually may clarify school officials’ power to suppress speech as a means of protecting the rights of other students. In Abington School District v. Schempp, the court ruled broadly that school sponsorship of religious exercises violates the Constitution. Anybody who wants to say “Merry Christmas” is legally permitted to do so. In Menora v. Illinois High School Association (1982), the 7th U.S. For a discussion of vouchers and similar issues, see “Shifting Boundaries: The Establishment Clause and Government Funding of Religious Schools and Other Faith-Based Organizations.” Because that analysis was published in 2009 and has not been updated, it does not include a discussion of more recent Supreme Court voucher rulings or upcoming cases. The judicial panel ruled that the policy, therefore, did not promote Judaism or Islam and did not denigrate Christianity. A New York teacher recently had a case heard in Second Circuit Court of Appeals court concerning the display of religious items in her classroom. (The new survey finds that 26% of religiously affiliated teens in public school say they often or sometimes pray before eating lunch.). The university had refused the group access, asserting that the Establishment Clause forbade the use of a public university’s facilities for worship. These guidelines, addressing the extent to which religious expression and activity are permitted in public schools, were originally issued in 1995. The lower court previously ruled against the … • Not “religion-free zones:” “The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment prevent the government from making any law respecting the establishment of religion … But federal courts are more divided in cases involving students acting on their own to include a religious sentiment or prayer at a school commencement or a similar activity. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. The courts have drawn a sharp distinction between officially sponsored religious speech, such as a benediction by an invited clergyman at a commencement ceremony, and private religious speech by students. The U.S. Department of Education explains it this way in its 2003 guidelines, Religious Expression in Public Schools: “Teachers and school administrators, when acting in those capacities, are representatives of the state and are prohibited by the Establishment Clause from soliciting or encouraging religious activity, and from participating in such activity with students. Are legal disputes involving churches and other religious institutions constitutionally different from those involving their secular counterparts, and if so, how? (4) I believe the courts would likely rule in favor of the student. (He also taught creationism.) In 1968, the Court ruled in an 8-1 decision in the case of In re … Supreme Court Doctrine on Religion in Public Schools The Establishment Clause, the Free Exercise Clause, and the Free Speech Clause form the nexus of constitutional texts governing the limits of policy as to religious expression in schools. The 4th U.S. In that case, Mellen v. Bunting (2003), the appellate court reasoned that VMI’s military-like environment tended to coerce participation by cadets. Writing in dissent, Judge Alex Kozinski asserted that the school’s sexual harassment policy was far too vague and sweeping to support a restriction on all anti-gay speech. (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries. It began with the landmark 1962 ruling, Engel v. Vitale, that school-sponsored prayer – even nonsectarian prayer – violated the Establishment Clause. A significant, some might argue fatal, shift for those advocating the centrality of religion to public schools came in the early mid-20th century.As has always been the case, public schools, serving as microcosms of society, reflect not just the dominant values and ethos of society, but also serve an important economic and intellectual purpose. But Harper graduated from high school, and the case took a different turn. CLS sued a number of law schools after they denied the group official recognition because this leadership policy violated the schools’ nondiscrimination policies. The Amish community had a well-established record as hardworking and law-abiding, the court noted, and Amish teens would receive home-based training. One leading case is ACLU v. Black Horse Pike Regional Board of Education (1996), in which the senior class of a New Jersey public high school selected the student speaker by a vote without knowing in advance the contents of the student’s remarks. In Stone v. Graham (1980), for instance, it found unconstitutional a Kentucky law requiring all public schools to post a copy of the Ten Commandments. Indeed, challenges have come from Christian groups arguing that school policies discriminate against Christianity by promoting cultural pluralism. The ban was introduced in 2010. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Florida school officials were right to order the removal of student-created religious messages and symbols from a school beautification project. As long as school officials did not encourage or explicitly approve the contents, those courts have upheld religious content in student commencement speeches. In 2019, for instance, policies that could affect the way evolution is taught in public school (often by limiting discussion of “controversial issues”) were introduced and in some cases debated in several states, including Arizona, Florida, Maine, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Virginia. Similarly, teachers may disclose their religious identity; for instance, they need not refuse to answer when a student asks, “Do you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah?” or “Did I see you at the Islamic center yesterday morning?”. The court also backed the principal’s order that the teacher remove the Bible from his desktop and refrain from silently reading the Bible during instructional time. Lower courts consistently have followed the lead of Epperson and Edwards. Pray for the protection of religious expression in public schools. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which found unconstitutional a policy of the U.S. service academies that all cadets and midshipmen attend Protestant, Catholic or Jewish chapel services on Sunday (Anderson v. Laird, 1972). School officials neither influenced the choice of speaker nor screened the speech. This was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a Missouri program that denied a grant to a religious school for playground resurfacing, while providing grants to similarly situated non-religious groups, violated the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, in a statement accompanying the denial of review, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. (joined by fellow conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh) indicated the high court would be open to reviewing other cases involving similar issues. Those schools took the view that prayer and Bible reading in public schools were constitutionally impermissible, even if wholly student initiated. In general, then, the courts have ruled that public schools have substantial discretion to regulate the religious expression of teachers during instructional hours, especially when students are required to be present. Court decisions since then have emphasized the free speech rights of students in the public schools, even in the controversial area of religious expression. Judges usually reach that same conclusion when school officials cooperate with students to produce student-delivered religious messages. Compelled free speech by public schools. This limitation on religious expression raises difficult questions. In 1954, Congress revised the Pledge of Allegiance to refer to the nation as “under God,” a phrase that has since been recited by generations of schoolchildren. In Adler v. Duval County School Board (1996), for example, the 11th U.S. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) Board of Education v. Pico (1982) Bethel School District No. Some Americans are troubled by what they see as an effort on the part of federal courts and civil liberties advocates to exclude God and religious sentiment from public schools. [1] What is the place of religious and cultural expression in public schools? The following year, the high court extended the principle outlined in Engel to a program of daily Bible reading. Will U.S. Supreme Court Determine Freedom Of Religious Universities? The county rewrote these materials to exclude any reference to the views of particular faiths, making them more difficult to challenge successfully in court because the lessons did not condemn or praise any faith tradition. Circuit Court of Appeals nevertheless ruled that the high school could not permit religious content in the commencement speech. They, too, should have access to public space, the court said. The following day, Tyler Harper, a student at the school, wore a T-shirt that on the front read, “Be Ashamed, Our School Has Embraced What God Has Condemned,” and on the back, “Homosexuality Is Shameful, Romans 1:27.” School officials asked him to remove the shirt and took him out of class while they attempted to persuade him to do so. The court reasoned that students attending the graduation ceremony were as coerced to acquiesce in a student-led prayer as they would be if the prayer were offered by a member of the clergy, the practice forbidden by Weisman in 1992. When those requests have led to litigation, administrators invariably have prevailed on the grounds that they are obliged (for constitutional and pedagogical reasons) to be sensitive to a teacher’s coercive potential. Alito wrote that the court denied review in this case due to “important unresolved factual questions,” and that “the 9th Circuit’s understanding of free speech rights of public school teachers is troubling and may justify review in the future.”. Without question, public school employees retain their rights to free exercise of religion. 47 The following principles apply: (1) students may pray or use religious speech during noninstructional time; (2) students may organize prayer groups and meetings, such as “see you at the pole” gatherings; (3) students may pray—or not—during an official moment of silence; (4) students may … Free Exercise and the Legislative and Executive Branches This law has benefited a variety of student organizations, from gay and lesbian groups to evangelical Christian clubs. That was the key question in Wigg v. Sioux Falls School District (8th U.S. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution contains two clauses that affect this issue: the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. In that case, Brown v. Hot, Sexy, and Safer Productions (1995), the court rejected a complaint brought by parents who alleged that exposure to sexually explicit material infringed on their rights to religious freedom and control of the upbringing of their children. (+1) 202-419-4349 | Fax Courts have also expended substantial time and energy considering public school programs that involve Bible study. Because there were many student groups devoted to different and frequently opposing causes, the court determined that no reasonable observer would see the school’s recognition of a religious group as an official endorsement of the group’s religious views. Engel involved a simple and seemingly nonsectarian prayer composed especially for use in New York’s public schools. While it does not appear that making religion an outlaw in public schools was the intent of the founders, nor was it the practice in America before 1947, the Everson case set the stage for other challenges to religious practices in public schools. Prayer and Bible-reading have long been excluded from the public schools. In this case, gay and lesbian students in a California high school organized a Day of Silence, in which students promoting tolerance of differences in sexual orientation refrained from speaking in school. Establishment Clause In the court case, Board of Education v. Mergens (1990), the Supreme Court upheld the Equal Access Act. The debate over the meaning of the Establishment Clause. The principal denied Bridget's request, telling her that a religious club would be illegal in a public school. Instead, the court ruled that Newdow lacked standing to bring the suit because he did not have legal custody of his daughter. But it is not always easy to determine exactly what constitutes indoctrination or school sponsorship of religious activities. Although the case, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, involved just one law school (the University of California, Hastings College of Law), other law schools around the country also had been sued by the organization for similar reasons. In one case, for example, a federal appeals court approved a high school’s decision to prohibit a student from wearing a T-shirt containing a biblical passage condemning homosexuality. Can students be compelled to participate in a Christmas-themed music program? In Good News Club, a 6-3 majority held that the Free Speech Clause prohibited an elementary school from excluding an evangelical Christian program for children from the list of accepted after-school activities. The legal issues surrounding student religious expression in the public schools rest on competing, if not inconsistent, theories. The dissenters argued, unsuccessfully, that state financial support for a proselytizing journal violated the Establishment Clause. By insisting that religious expression be excluded from the formal curriculum, the Supreme Court was assuring parents that public schools would be officially secular and would not compete with parents in their children’s religious upbringing. The presence of student religious groups in public schools has raised one additional issue. (Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images), Shifting Boundaries: The Establishment Clause and Government Funding of Religious Schools and Other Faith-Based Organizations, Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, proponents and opponents of Darwin’s theory of evolution, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, Good News Club v. Milford Central School District, Religious activities and the principle of equal access. A civil rights attorneycan explain how the law applies to your situation, how you might approach school officials to resolve the problem, and any legal options that may be available if the school doesn’t respond. We list the important Supreme Court decisions on religious expression in public schools in Table 1. ), Beginning in the 1960s, the court handed religious conservatives a series of major defeats. Professor Phillip Bishop had been speaking regularly to his class about the role of his Christian beliefs in his work and had scheduled an optional class in which he offered a “Christian perspective” on human physiology. Religious music can be played in public schools when the overall focus of the activity is not religious. In Roberts v. Madigan (1990), a federal district court similarly upheld the authority of a public school principal in Colorado to order a fifth-grade teacher to take down a religious poster from the classroom wall and to remove books titled “The Bible in Pictures” and “The Life of Jesus” from the classroom library. At times, however, teachers act in an uninvited and overtly religious manner toward students and are asked by school administrators to refrain. (Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was then a member of the appeals court, joined a dissenting opinion in the case, arguing that the graduating students’ rights to religious and expressive freedom should prevail over the Establishment Clause concerns.). The issue of home schooling is a good example. It is the school system (or government) who must not promote one religious perspective over another. Whenever public schools recognize student extracurricular activities (for example, a student Republican club or an animal rights group), the schools are deemed to have created a forum for student expression. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a set of restrictions imposed by the University of Alabama on a professor of exercise physiology. Circuit Court of Appeals, 2004), in which a teacher sued the South Dakota school district for refusing to allow her to serve as an instructor in the Good News Club (an evangelical Christian group) that met after school hours at various public elementary schools in the district. Such an effort, these Americans believe, infringes on the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. 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