A timeline, like Trump wants to bring back – The Forward

Assistant football coach Joe Kennedy will take a knee before the U.S. Supreme Court after his public school prayer lawsuit went to trial in April 2022. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By means of Benjamin Cohen
November 12, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump promised that in his second term he would dismantle the Board of Education and shift responsibility for public schools to the United States. He seemed to contradict himself and also said that the federal government “support to bring prayer back to our schools.”

Students are allowed to pray privately at public schools or as part of religious clubs, but school-mandated prayers were declared unconstitutional by a landmark 1962 Supreme Court ruling.

Here is a brief timeline of prayers in public schools, from the Founding Fathers to President Trump.

1791 to 1963

1791 ► The First Amendment to the Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” which creates a separation between church and state, “or prohibits the free exercise thereof,” which gives people the right to practice their own religion practice.

1868 ► The First Amendment originally applied only at the federal level, and not to state-run public schools. The Fourteenth Amendment expanded it to apply to local and state governments, which run public schools.

1868 – 1962 ► Many public schools started each day with a prayer, despite what was stated in the constitution. By the 1950s, this was routine in at least 37 states. In addition, a dozen states mandated reading the Bible in school.

1962 ► The New York Board of Regents developed a prayer for that state’s public schools. Although students were not required to recite the prayer, its adoption caused controversy in at least one school district. Steven Engel, a Jewish parent and co-founder of the New York Civil Liberties Union, joined other parents on Long Island and filed a lawsuit. The historic case known as Angel vs. Vitaleeventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which ruled that the prayer was illegal.

1963 ► In another case Abington School District v. Schemppthe Supreme Court banned compulsory Bible reading and the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.

1963 to present

In the decades since these Supreme Court rulings, prayer continues to be practiced in public schools. A 2019 Pew Research survey found that 8% of teens say a teacher has led their class in prayer.

1992 ► A Jewish family from Rhode Island watched as a Baptist minister led a prayer invoking Jesus at a high school graduation ceremony for their eldest daughter. They then complained to the school and were assured that this would not happen again. A few years later, when their youngest daughter graduated, the school asked a rabbi to lead the prayer instead. The family has filed a lawsuit on principlearguing that it was still unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the family and reaffirmed that public prayers were prohibited in schools.

2000 ► Parents have sued a Santa Fe school district after it selected student “chaplains” to lead public prayers at football games. After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional.

2022 ► The Bremerton School District in Washington state fired Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach, for praying with players at the 50-yard line after games. The Supreme Court – with a conservative majority thanks to three new justices appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term – ruled in favor of Coach Kennedy. The school district rehired Kennedy, who coached one game and then retired.

July 2024 ► Oklahoma mandated that all public school classrooms have a Bible and teach the Bible to students in grades 5 through 12. “If anyone in history quotes the Bible, whether you believe in the Bible or not, that’s really not relevant,” Ryan Walters, the state inspector and son of a Christian pastor, told the Come on. “We need to accurately portray history.” Teachers have resistedand a group of parents has filed a lawsuit to stop the new law.

November 2024 ► In July of this year, Louisiana ordered all public school classrooms to hang a poster of the Ten Commandments. Parents have filed a lawsuit and a federal judge prevented the state from enforcing the law in November. A lengthy legal battle is expected to ensue.

November 2024 ► President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to bring that prayer back to public schools.