Vote: What's your view on school prayer in Rhode Island school? (Jessica Ahlquist)

[COLGATE4]

38. When a legal issue requires legal analysis

a generalized feel-good set of "Well, I think" and "but I feel" adds nothing to the discussion . Either you understand and discuss the question using criteria from the courts to determine if a poster/plaque/similar constitutes an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and is therefore not permitted in the public square or you don't. I have neither the time or the inclination to attempt to school you on First Amendment Law except to tell you that your assumption that because this is purportedly the result of a Class gifts which are student-organized voluntary activities is irrelevant to the question. Under Stone v Graham (1980) the USSct held that a posting even though privately funded still violated the Establishment Clause.

From my lecture notes, I would tell you that the first prong of the legal test set forth in Lemon v Kurtzman (USSCt 1971) demands that a challenged item being scrutinized must meet the tes of whether it is primarily Secular or Religious. Pretty difficult to find a secular purpose for publicly posting this prayer as written. You also attach great import to the fact that it's been there for 70 odd years - again, that factor has been viewed by the courts as essentially irrelevant, particularly when the admitted purpose of the challenged object is religious.