Santa Fe Independent School District, Petitioner v. Jane Doe (2000)

"The School District asks us to pretend that we do not recognize
what every Santa Fe High School student understands clearly."

Santa Fe High Football- Home of the Raiders

Texas, 1994. Before every Santa Fe High varsity football game, a student chaplain delivers a prayer over the public address system. Mormons and Catholics object, in court. While their suit is pending, the school changes its football-prayer policy, calling it now: "an invocation to solemnize the event."

Six years later, the Supreme Court rules this policy unconstitutional. "The District asks us to pretend that we do not recognize what every Santa Fe High School student understands clearly -- that this policy is about prayer." Justice Stevens writes: "The First Amendment by no means imposes a prohibition on all religious activity in our public schools. But the religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the State affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer."

For more...

Santa Fe Texas School Prayer Case Mormon News

How Could A Mormon Family Sue Over School Prayer?

School Prayer and Football FindLaw

Supreme Court "Openly Hostile" Toward Religion ChristianLaw.org

AMENDMENT 1 Freedom of Religion, Speech, and Assembly

Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [^].

Your Constitutional Rights. A WEB & RADIO project of:
ACLU Montana | HearingVoices.