Title: School prayers; Congress, the courts, and the public.
Authors: Laubach, John Herbert.
Publisher: Public Affairs Press
Year: 1969
Subjects: Prayer in the public schools Law and legislation United States
Abstract: In 1962 and 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court announced its rulings enjoining prayers and devotional Bible reading in the public schools. Stunned by the edicts, hundreds of thousands of Americans expressed their ire by imploring members of Congress to initiate a constitutional amendment to overturn the federal decrees, a step for which there had been precedents in the enactment of the Eleventh and Sixteenth Amendments. Despite spectacular efforts to frame a school prayer amendment in the two houses of Congress, passage failed in each case. Notwithstanding the disillusionment which attended these failures, school prayer advocates continue to press relentlessly for legislative action. - Preface.
Contents: Rediscovery of the First Amendment -- Religion and public schools -- The Becker Amendment versus the Supreme Court -- Dissection of the Becker Amendment -- Reactions to Engel and Schempp -- The Dirksen Amendment.