On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court handed down one of its biggest rulings in the “school prayer” case of Engel v. Vitale. In light of recent proposals calling for a return of school prayer, I thought it might make sense to run through a little of this history. (What follows is pulled from my book
"...faith was “too personal, too sacred, too holy to permit its ‘unhallowed perversion’ by a civil magistrate.”" Hmmmmm. Replace "faith" with "bodily autonomy" and we have a strong pro-choice argument. Also a precedent! We know how important precedent is to this Court! 😂
That's an interesting link, but I doubt he would've agreed. Black was gone by the time the Court decided Roe, but he was one of two no votes in the Court's decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which established a right to privacy in sexual matters which set up the case.
The school prayer cases combined with Brown v. Board of Ed. had a major effect on the right. I remember school devotionals in public school in Nashville. They abruptly stopped in fourth grade. I’ve read your book One Nation Under God. Another good one is American Apocalypse, which describes Nashville businessman Maxey Jarman as the “renowned evangelical shoe tycoon.” Jarman ran for Governor in the Republican primary. I think he lost to Winfield Dunn.
Exactly. Brown v. Board of Education and the school prayer cases led to the ubiquitous “Impeach Earl Warren” signs, calls for “strict constructionism, “ and attacks on common law methods of interpretation. Many people do not realize that the common law is literally judge-made law. Those founders who were lawyers were trained in the common law tradition..
"...faith was “too personal, too sacred, too holy to permit its ‘unhallowed perversion’ by a civil magistrate.”" Hmmmmm. Replace "faith" with "bodily autonomy" and we have a strong pro-choice argument. Also a precedent! We know how important precedent is to this Court! 😂
Very interesting article. Thank you.
That's an interesting link, but I doubt he would've agreed. Black was gone by the time the Court decided Roe, but he was one of two no votes in the Court's decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which established a right to privacy in sexual matters which set up the case.
The school prayer cases combined with Brown v. Board of Ed. had a major effect on the right. I remember school devotionals in public school in Nashville. They abruptly stopped in fourth grade. I’ve read your book One Nation Under God. Another good one is American Apocalypse, which describes Nashville businessman Maxey Jarman as the “renowned evangelical shoe tycoon.” Jarman ran for Governor in the Republican primary. I think he lost to Winfield Dunn.
As an Alabama congressman declared when the Court handed down Engel: "First they put the Negroes in our schools and now they've driven God out!"
Exactly. Brown v. Board of Education and the school prayer cases led to the ubiquitous “Impeach Earl Warren” signs, calls for “strict constructionism, “ and attacks on common law methods of interpretation. Many people do not realize that the common law is literally judge-made law. Those founders who were lawyers were trained in the common law tradition..