| Supreme
Court Judgments That Have Overturned Our Heritage | |
| • | Everson v. Board of Education, 1947: "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."[44] The Supreme Court for the first time in its history used only the phrase. Did not give the context of Jefferson's letter, did not even show that previous courts had used his letter to keep religious vales and principles part of society.[48] More |
| • | Engel v. Vitale, 1962; Abington v. Schempp, 1963; Commissioner of Education v. School Committee of Leyden, 1971: "It is unconstitutional to offer verbal prayers in a school, regardless of denominational neutrality and voluntary participation." [44] even though for 185 years prayer was allowed in public and the Constitutional Convention itself was opened with prayer.[44] |
| • | Reed v. van Hoven, 1965. "It is unconstitutional for a student to pray aloud over his lunch."[44] |
| • | Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. Chandler Unified School District, 1981. "Students have guaranteed freedom of speech and press, except when it becomes religious, at which point it becomes unconstitutional." [44] |
| • | State Board v. Board of Education of Netcong, 1970. "It is unconstitutional for a voluntary gathering of students before school to hear the prayers of Congressional Chaplains read from the Congressional Record by a student volunteer, even though the prayers are printed in a public manuscript published by the US government."[44] |
| • | Stone v. Gramm; 1980; Ring v. Grand Forks Public School District, 1980; Lanner v. Wimmer, 1981: (Italics added for emphasis) "It is unconstitutional for the walls of a classroom to have the Ten Commandments on them, because it may lead the students to read them, meditate on them, respect them, or obey them. This is not a permissible objective."[44, 48] |
| • | Yet,
despite all these rulings, the Supreme Court is still opened today with the following: |