Case name: Abington School Dist. v. Schempp

Opinion filed: 1963-06-17

Docket No.: 142

Citations:
• 10 L. Ed. 2d 844
• 83 S. Ct. 1560
• 374 U.S. 203
• 1963 U.S. LEXIS 2611

Case holding summaries:
• “[T]he requirements for standing to challenge state action under the Establishment Clause, unlike those relating to the Free Exercise Clause, do not include proof that particular religious freedoms are infringed.”
• Bible study in public schools
• "But the requirements for standing to challenge state action under the Establishment Clause, unlike those relating to the Free Exercise Clause, do not include proof that particular religious freedoms are infringed."
• finding standing where state laws required Bible readings or prayer in public schools, not because plaintiffs were state taxpayers but because their children were enrolled in public schools and so were “directly affected” by the challenged laws
• school children and parents objected to reading of Bible in school although students could chose to be absent at time or to not participate
• calling the principle "decisively settled"
• State required opening of school day with Bible reading, giving students the option of absenting themselves.
• holding that public school pupils and their parents who objected to Bible reading in school had standing because they were “di- rectly affected by the laws and practices against which their complaints [were] directed”
• holding that schools’ policy of required Bible study and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer violated the Establishment Clause
• holding that schools’ policy of required Bible study and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer violated Establishment Clause
• "this Court has rejected unequivocally the contention that the Establishment Clause forbids only governmental preference of one religion over another"
• "The fact that the Founding Fathers believed devotedly that there was a God and that the unalienable rights of man were rooted in Him is clearly evidenced in their writings, from the Mayflower Compact to the Constitution itself."
• holding that laws requiring that bible verses be read at the start of the day in public schools violated the Establishment Clause
• holding that parents "directly affected by the laws and practices against which their complaints are directed" surely have cognizable interests for standing purposes
• student-chosen Bible readings followed by Lord's Prayer
• holding that the purpose of the Free Exercise Clause is “to secure religious liberty in the individual by prohibiting any invasions thereof by civil authority.”
• Bible reading before class by student volunteers
• discussing the “apparent distinction” between the two clauses
• "The parties here are school children and their parents, who are directly affected by the laws and practices against which their complaints are directed. These interests surely suffice to give the parties standing to complain."
• declining to adopt an interpretation that would permit states to do indirectly what they cannot do directly
• striking down a school program because of its "breach of neutrality"
• daily Bible reading and class recitation of prayer violates first amendment notwithstanding that students could be excused
• "Nor are these required exercises mitigated by the fact that individual students may absent themselves upon parental request[.]"
• rejecting the contention that the absence of religion equates to "affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion"
• "[T]he fact that individual students may absent themselves ... furnishes no defense to a claim of unconstitutionality under the Establishment Clause."
• daily scripture readings in public school
• finding required Bible reading and recitation of Lord's Prayer in public schools to be violative of Establishment Clause
• holding that schools’ policy of required Bible study and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer violated Establishment Clause
• holding that recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or Bible readings at the start of the school day violated the Establishment Clause
• holding that the purpose of the Free Exercise Clause is “to secure religious liberty in the individual by prohibiting any invasions thereof by civil authority.”
• no Bible readings in public schools
• striking down the daily recitation of the Lord's Prayer and reading from the Bible in elementary and secondary schools
• concurring opinion Mr. Justice Brennan
• one's education is not complete without the study of religion and its relationship to civilization
• finding standing where state laws required Bible readings or prayer in public schools, not because plaintiffs were state taxpayers but because their children were enrolled in public schools and so were “directly affected” by the challenged laws
• "[T]he State may not establish a ‘religion of secularism’ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to reli- gion" (quoting Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 314 (1952)
• holding that schools may not compel students to join in readings from the Bible
• "[I]t is necessary in a free exercise case for one to show the coercive effect of the [government act] as it operates against him in the practice of his religion."
• religion and Bible studied in purely pedagogic manner held constitutional
• daily scripture readings in public school
• calling religious freedom an “individual” right
• holding daily bible reading unconstitutional
• "[O]ur religious composition makes us a vastly more diverse people than were our forefathers."
• requiring students to recite Bible verses and the Lord's prayer at opening of school day violated Establishment Clause
• "Freedom of conscience and freedom to adhere to such religious organization or form of worship as the individual may choose cannot be restricted by law"
• "the State may not establish a `religion of secularism' in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus `preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe'"(quoting Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306, 314, 72 S.Ct. 679, 96 L.Ed. 954 (1952))
• "[T]he State may not establish a `religion of secularism' in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion"
• opening exercises featuring Bible recitation and reading of Lord’s prayer held unconstitutional
• the neutrality required by the Estab- lishment Clause aims at preventing church and state from acting in concert such that government support is “placed behind the tenets of one or of all orthodoxies”
• “[I]t is no defense to urge that the religious practices here may be relatively minor encroachments on the First Amendment.”

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