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Article: 60 years of controversy: what the Supreme Court has ruled on religion in public schools--and why.
- Article from:
- Church & State
- Article date:
- February 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The U.S. Supreme Court has been grappling with the role of religion in public education for six decades now. At the risk of oversimplifying, the high court has tended to strike down programs of schoolsponsored or coercive religious activity while protecting the right of individual students to engage in truly voluntary prayer and other religious activities in a non-disruptive fashion.
Here is a summary of the religion-in-public-schools rulings with excerpts from the majority opinions:
* McCollum v. Board of Education (1948): Ruling 8-1, the high court struck down a program of "released-time" religious instruction in Champaign, Ill., public schools because ...