Schools were prohibited from allowing a
student to offer a prayer for the sportsmanship and safety of the players over
the public address system before a football game. 27 What First Amendment
sources did the Court use to strike down this longstanding tradition? PRE-1947:
1; POST-1947: 18.
Good News Club v. Milford Central School,
2001
The Milford elementary school allowed
community groups to use its facilities after-hours, but when a religious group
sought to use the facilities for student activities, the school denied access
to the group. The Court struck down the school policy. On what grounds? PRE-1947: 0; POST-1947: 16.
Van Orden v. Perry, 2005
The Texas State Capitol was permitted to
retain a 6-foot high granite display of the Ten Commandments among the other 16
monuments on the Capitol grounds. What
First Amendment precedents made the display
permissible? PRE-1947: 0; POST-1947: 16.
McCreary County, Ky. v. ACLU of Ky., 2005
A county courthouse was prohibited from
displaying a copy of the Ten Commandments among a collection of nine documents
such as the Declaration of Independence and the Star-Spangled Banner entitled
“The Foundations of American Law and Government.” What was the basis for this decision?
PRE-1947: 3; POST-1947: 24.
Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation,
2007
The federal faith-based office was created by
the President and operates in several cabinet-level departments of the
Executive Branch to ensure that community faith-based groups may compete for
federal funds on the same basis as secular groups. The Court rejected a
taxpayer challenge to these programs. On what basis? PRE-1947: 5; POST-1947:
20.
Clearly, in its numerous rulings on religious
issues since 1947, whether ruling for or against religious activities and
expressions, the Court now relies almost exclusively upon its own recent
case-law precedents the very precedents under which it has essentially
rewritten the First Amendment. In fact, as the above statistics demonstrate, as
far as the Court is concerned, the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution is
no longer dated 1789 but rather 1947.
