1. RELIGION AND THE
AMERICAN
CONSTITUTIONAL
EXPERIMENT
Chapter 8
Religion and Public Education

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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)

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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)