{
  "id": "RL30649",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL30649",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 101975,
      "date": "2000-08-18",
      "retrieved": "2016-05-24T20:34:03.060941",
      "title": "Prayer and Religion in the Public Schools: What Is, and Is Not, Permitted",
      "summary": "A recurring and politically volatile issue in constitutional law concerns the standards imposed\nby the\nreligion and free speech clauses of the First Amendment on government involvement with religious\nactivities and beliefs in the public schools. In pertinent part the First Amendment provides that\n\"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise\nthereof; or abridging the freedom of speech....\" Because each of these clauses is worded as an\nabsolute, it is sometimes ambiguous whether governmental involvement in a given situation is a\nforbidden establishment of religion or a permissible or required accommodation of free exercise or\nspeech. Nonetheless, the judicial interpretation of these clauses with respect to religious activities\nand expression in the public schools has been fairly consistent.\n  The Supreme Court has handed down eighteen rulings on various aspects of the matter, and the\nstate and lower federal courts have added hundreds more. The gravamen of the courts' rulings has\nbeen that government must be neutral regarding religion in the public schools, serving neither as its\nagent nor as its adversary. Religious expression that is genuinely private, in turn, has been held to\nbe constitutionally protected. \n  Thus, the establishment clause has been held to bar government from using its authority to\ninculcate or proselytize about religious faith in the public schools, either directly or indirectly. \nIncluded in this proscription have been sponsorship of devotional exercises during the school day,\nat school events such as football games, and at secondary school graduation ceremonies; the\nadaptation of the school curriculum to particular religious dogmas; letting privately sponsored\nteachers come into the schoolrooms during the school day to give religious instruction; permitting\nonly sectarian literature such as the Gideon Bible to be distributed by outside groups, and posting\nreligious affirmations such as the Ten Commandments on classroom walls.\n  On the other hand, it has been held to be constitutionally permissible for government to give\nobjective instruction about religion and religious literature as part of a secular program of education;\nto sponsor patriotic or ceremonial exercises which incidentally involve professions of faith; to\naccommodate private programs of religious instruction given off the public school premises; to\npermit student-initiated religious groups to meet in public school facilities during the school day on\nthe same basis as non-religious student groups; to allow students to distribute religious literature;\nto permit religious expression in course work; and to exempt students with religious objections from\nparticular attendance or curricular requirements. The courts have also affirmed the constitutionality\nof religious expression by students during the school day that is genuinely private and self-initiated.\n  This report summarizes each of the Supreme Court's decisions, gives a detailed overview of\nwhat has been held to be constitutionally permissible and constitutionally forbidden, and describes\ntwo issues as yet unsettled.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL30649",
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      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "American Law",
    "Constitutional Questions"
  ]
}