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indeed, were presidential proclamations of a religious nature. "Is the appointment of chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom?" Madison asked. "In strictness [the answer] must be in the negative." In shaping the First Amendment, Madison and his fellow founders had melancholy lessons of history in mind. In the Europe that the colonists left behind, state power had often been used to enforce religion, and the results over the centuries had been war, strife and persecution. To assure freedom of religion in the new nation, the founders wrote into the First Amendment a double-barreled safeguard: they barred both any "establishment of religion" and any restriction on "the free exercise" of religion. The Supreme Court last week based its ruling solely on the "establishment" clause, but many Americans got an impression that the court impaired the free exercise of religion.
This impression was fortified by Justice Stewart's dissent, in which he argued that "to deny the wish of these children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our nation." But the right of free exercise carries with it the right not to participate in any sort of religious activity, and it is begging a point to say that New York schoolchildren were free to leave the classroom during the recitation of the prayer. Even the children of the five Long Islanders who brought the suit remained in their classrooms, because, as one parent explained, their parents did not want them to become "pariahs" among their schoolmates.
"In Our Public Life." Adding greatly to the confusion was Justice Douglas' concurring opinion—which was mistakenly understood by many as having some force of law. Douglas reached far beyond Black, presenting the view that the customary daily prayers at the opening of each house of Congress, and even the ritual cry of the marshal at the opening of each Supreme Court session ("God save the U.S. and this honorable court"), violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Douglas' opinion magnified the widespread fears that the court's decision would lead to the erasing of all traces of religion from government, even the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" from the currency.