The first provision in the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights bars "an establishment of religion." Last week the Supreme Court handed down a decision affirming that provision—and thereby brought upon itself a deluge of denunciation. Eminent clergymen attacked the decision as "shocking" and "tragic." Members of Congress put forward a score of proposed constitutional amendments to nullify the effects of the ruling. Newspapers, snowed under by wrathful letters from readers, erupted in editorial anger. To the Supreme Court Building in Washington came hundreds of letters and telegrams agreeing with the sentiments of Los Angeles Municipal Judge Ida May Adams, who concluded her usual court-opening prayer with a new plea: "God bless the Supreme Court and in Your wisdom let it be shown the error of its ways."
"An Abomination." The decision that summoned the storm involved a brief prayer that the New York State Board of Regents had composed and "recommended" for use in public schools. The Regents were trying to resolve a conflict over what kind of religious observances should be held in public schools, attended by children of parents who profess various religious beliefs. The issue had vexed school authorities for more than a century: in the 1840s, Roman Catholics rioted in New York City in protest against the reading of the King James Version of the Bible in public schools.
Trying to avoid offending anybody, the Regents adopted this "nondenominational" compromise: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessing upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country." Many school boards adopted the prayer. Normally it was spoken by the class in unison at the start of each school day, with the teacher leading the recitation. In keeping with state court decisions, the Regents notified school authorities that no child could be compelled to say the prayer, and that any child had the right to be excused from the room while the prayer was being recited.
Inoffensive as the prayer seemed to the Regents, it offended a lot of people. The American Jewish Congress and several other major Jewish groups officially protested against it. So did the American Civil Liberties Union and various freethinker groups. The leaders of a Lutheran church in Peekskill, N.Y., denounced the prayer as "an abomination" (because it contained no mention of Christ). The Methodist Church board in Schenectady, N.Y., declared that the "place for specific teaching and formal practice of religion is in the home and in the church."
Three years ago, five parents of children attending public schools in New Hyde Park, a suburban community on Long Island, brought suit in the New York State Supreme Court to halt recitation of the Regents' prayer on the ground that it violated their beliefs. Of the five parents, two were synagogue-going Jews, one was a Unitarian, one a member of the Society for Ethical Culture, one an agnostic. After the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, upheld the Regents' prayer in a 5-to-2 ruling, the parents carried their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.