United States Supreme Court

Significant court rulings of the past

1799 Runkel v. Winemiller
“ By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion, and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing.”
Justice Samuel Chase

1844 Vidal v. Girard
“Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament be read and taught as a divine revelation in the schools --Its general precepts expounded and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?

1878 Reynolds v. United States
The intent of Jefferson’s remarks was that “The rightful purposes of civil government are for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order. In this . . . is found the true distinction between what properly belongs to the church and what to the State.”

CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY v. U.S.
Feb. 29, 1892
" These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."
"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."
Quoted 87 precedents in a 16 page document

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Recent Supreme Court Rulings

STONE v. GRAHAM, 449 U.S. 39 (1980)
“If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.”

McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948) (preventing religious instruction on school property during school day)

Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) (proscribing nonsectarian prayer at beginning of school day);

Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963) (enjoining Bible reading before class);

Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968) (voiding statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution in state funded schools);

Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) (prohibiting posting copy of Ten Commandments on classroom wall);

Wallace v. Jaffree 472 U.S. 38 (1985) (enjoining daily moment of silence for public school classrooms);
Jaffree v. Board of School Commissioner of Mobile County [1983]--the U.S. District Court ruling in this case

Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987) (voiding requirement to teach "creation science");

Jager v. Douglas County School District, 862 F.2d 824 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1090 (1989) (voiding schools permitting student clubs or organizations to designate person to deliver invocations prior to high school football games).

Roberts v. Madigan, 921 F.2d 1047 (10th Cir. 1990) (prohibiting religiously oriented books placed in classroom library and teacher silently reading Bibles during classroom hours);

Doe v. Duncanville Independent School District, 986 F.2d 953 (5th Cir. 1993) (prohibiting basketball coach sponsoring prayer at end of games and practices);

Berger v. Rensselaer Central School Corporation, 982 F.2d 1160 (7th Cir. 1993) (enjoining religious organizations—in this case, the Gideons---distributing Bibles in classrooms)