Restricting public employees' free exercise rights or the State to maintain neutrality toward religion has been longstanding precedent in the United States. It has certainly been the case in US public schools beginning in the 1940s and affirmed through the courts over and again through much of the 20th century. The aftermath of 2 recent Supreme…

Christianity is one of the cultural and ethical cornerstones of Europe. In the European Union (EU) there is no overarching policy on religious education (RE) in the school system. The authors use a comparative methodology to analyze the constitutions of Western European countries in relation to different aspects of RE. Specifically, it is focused…

Religion in public schools has long been a controversial issue. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that teachers and administrators cannot lead prayers in public schools, and a decision in 2000 barred school districts from sponsoring student-led prayers at football games. At the same time, the court has held that students retain a First…

On September 9, 2009, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that officials from Everett School District #2 in Mill Creek, Washington did not violate student Kathryn Nurre's constitutional rights to free speech by denying the Jackson High School Wind Ensemble the opportunity to perform an instrumental version of Franz Biebl's Ave Maria at…

In this article, the author provides a detailed legal history of originalism and investigates whether, and to what extent, originalism is a part of law school teaching on the Constitution. He shares the results of an examination of the leading constitutional law textbooks used in the top fifty law schools and a selection of responses gathered from…

In this essay Bryan Warnick explores how rights to religious expression should be understood for students in public schools. Warnick frames student religious rights as a debate between the conflicting values associated with the Free Exercise Clause and the values associated with the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. He then…

This article discusses the steady stream of litigation that emerged shortly after the Pledge of Allegiance was introduced in 1892. The constitutionality of requiring students to take part in its daily recitation in schools continues to be challenged. Parents who objected to the statute and the words "under God" in the pledge filed suit, alleging…

In this paper, the author explored the teachers' experiences and their views regarding how assemblies are conducted in Botswana public schools. The author indicates that assemblies are a common feature in Botswana primary and secondary schools. The author adopted the Christian Privilege as the conceptual framework as espoused by Blumenfeld (2006)…

This case study focuses on issues of freedom of speech and freedom of religion in public schools. It involves a rural, southern high school where a group of students participated in a Day of Silence. The school allowed the students to participate based on the principal's understanding of the students' First Amendment rights. However, the next day,…

Although the systems of public schools differ among Australia, South Africa and the USA, all three countries recognize that religion plays a significant role in determining values. All three countries have written constitutions but only South Africa and the USA have a Bill of Rights that protects persons' exercise of religious beliefs. In…

Two issues are important in the controversy over religion in the schools: whether or not the approaches being advocated by religious groups are educationally sound, and the constitutional issue of the public's right to control its schools. (MD)

Although schools cannot actively promote religiously-oriented activity, neither can they prohibit such activity. The 98th Congress passed the Equal Access Act in an attempt to ground students' rights to practice religion in the schools in well-established constitutional principles requiring equal treatment, protecting student-initiated meetings,…

The town of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, was incorporated for the purpose of achieving the religious vision of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, just as the Mormons established communities around the teachings of Joseph Smith. The incorporation of Rajneeshpuram was challenged on the basis of the First Amendment, however, raising new questions in regard to the…

Responding to student recitation of the Lord's Prayer at a high school graduation, recounts how religious differences can create difficulties and discomfort for students in public schools. Argues the right of the minority must be protected from a majority who wishes to promote their religious beliefs at taxpayer expense. (DB)

Since the advent of the "Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms", the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has rendered judgments in four cases where individual educational stakeholders have alleged violations of their constitutional rights. In three of the cases, "R. v. Jones", "Eaton v. Brant County Board of Education",…