School prayer
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JBuscombe (talk | contribs) at 20:12, January 17, 2008. It may differ significantly from current revision.
Prayer was encouraged, allowed and practiced in public schools from colonial times until 1962, when the U.S. Supreme Court in Engel v. Vitale banned school prayer without citing a single decision as a precedent for its ruling.
Secular groups herald this as a great victory for their ideology, as since 1962 taxpayers have been compelled to fund and support an secular culture for the 90% of Americans who attend public school. Supporters of the decision claim that there is a "separation of church and state" in the U.S. Constitution, though no such phrase or prohibition exists in the document.