Wallace v. Jaffree
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In Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a mandatory moment of silence to be used for meditation or voluntary prayer was unconstitutional.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor concurred in the judgment and addressed the argument that this holding would render the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because Congress amended it in 1954 to add the words "under God":
- "In my view, the words 'under God' in the Pledge, as codified at (36 U.S.C. 172), serve as an acknowledgment of religion with 'the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, [and] expressing confidence in the future.'"