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First School in America
The first publicly supported schools in America were established due to religious motives in 1647, when Massachusetts legislature enacted the famous "old Deluder Satan" Act. The act required the establishment and support of schools in towns of 50 or more families to teach children to read and write. A person could achieve salvation and delude Satan only by being able to read the Bible. -
First Amendment
The First Amendment, enacted in 1791, specified that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." -
Fourteenth Amendment
The Supreme Court held that the fundamental concept of "Liberty" was in coorprated into the 14th Amendment that guarantees of the First Amendment and safeguards them against state interference. -
West Virginia Sate Board of Education vs. Barnette
A decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protected students from being forced to salute the American flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance in school. It was a significant court victory won by Jehovah's Witnesses, whose religion forbade them from saluting or pledging to symbols, including symbols of political institutions. -
Everson vs. Board of Education
Everson vs. Board of Education was the first major establishment clause decision, Congress will not make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise tof religion. They were to be nutraul to religion and the law. -
Release Time
In 1952 there was a time called "release time" in which the students where ble to leave school during the school day to go practice reglious education and instructions. -
School Sponsored Prayer Ends
The Supreme Court declarded in the early 1960's the school sponsored and Bible readings vialoted the establishment clauses. -
Epperson vs. Arkansas
The United States Supreme Court case that invalidated an Arkansas statute that prohibited the teaching of human evolution in the public schools. The United Staes Supreme Court statted that Arkansas satute voilated the Establishment Clause of First Amendment. -
Lemon vs. Kurtzman
The Supreme Court announced a three-part test to evaluate establishment clause claims in Lemon vs. Kurtzman. The government action of policy must (1) have a secular purpose, (2) have a primary effect that neither advances nor impedes religion, and (3) avoid excessive entanglement of government with religion. This test was used consistently until 1992. -
Wisconsin vs. Yoder
The case in which the United States Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade, as it violated their parents' fundamental right to freedom of religion. -
Equal Access Act
United States federal law passed to compel federally-funded secondary schools to provide equal access to extracurricular clubs. Lobbied for by religious groups who wanted to ensure students the right to conduct Bible study programs during lunch and after school. -
The Posting of Ten Commandments
The Supreme Court declared a Kentucky law unconstitutional that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms in 1985 -
Wallace vs. Jeffree
A United States Supreme Court case deciding on the issue of silent school prayer. An Alabama law authorized teachers to set aside one minute at the start of each day for a moment of "silent meditation or voluntary prayer," and sometimes the teacher of the classroom asked upon a student to recite some prayers. -
Mozert vs. Hawkins County Board of Education
In a Tennessee School District parents were unsuccessful at having their children excused from reading a basal reading series in the elementary schools. -
Lee vs. Weisman
The United States Supreme Court decision regarding school prayer. It was the first major school prayer case that involved prayers led by religious authority figures at public school graduation ceremonies. -
Altman vs. Bedford Central School Distrect
A New York case that involved parents who asserted that parts of a reading program (Harry Potter) offended their Catholic faith and they won.