◼ Fifty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools was unconstitutional. Prior to that decision, it was relatively common for children to begin the school day with a reading of Bible verses, though eleven states already had laws supporting Bible reading or prayer in schools overturned at the state level. - NJToday
In the majority opinion, Justice Thomas Clark wrote, “The place of religion in our society is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, the church and the inviolable citadel of the individual heart and mind. We have come to recognize through bitter experience that it is not within the power of government to invade that citadel, whether its purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard.”
Justice Potter Stewart was the lone dissenting voice, arguing that religion and government must interact in countless ways pointing to an inherent conflict between Constitutional provisions that both prohibit laws “respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
