Wallace v. Jaffree - Significance, Court Strikes Down "minute Of Silence" Law As Impermissible State Sponsorship Of Religion

appellant appellee supreme decision

Appellant

George C. Wallace, Governor of Alabama

Appellee

Ishmael Jaffree

Appellant's Claim

That public schools can provide students with a minute of silence each day for purposes of meditation or prayer without violating the doctrine of church-state separation.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

John S. Baker, Jr.

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

Ronnie L. Williams

Justices for the Court

Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Sandra Day O'Connor, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., John Paul Stevens (writing for the Court)

Justices Dissenting

Warren E. Burger, William H. Rehnquist, Byron R. White

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

4 December 1984

Decision

The Supreme Court struck down the Alabama "moment of silence" statute.

Related Cases

Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962).
Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963).
Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971).
Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984).

Sources

Eastland, Terry. Religious Liberty in the Supreme Court. Washington, DC: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1993.

Additional Topics

Wallace v. Jaffree - Significance

The Court remained firm in its opposition to statutes like Alabama's, which was clearly intended to reintroduce prayer into the schools. However, the Court did leave an opening for some other state to introduce a truly undefined, uncommitted "moment of silence" into its school system. Ishmael Jaffree was a resident of Mobile County, Alabama. On 28 May 1982, he filed suit in federal district court …

Wallace v. Jaffree - Court Strikes Down "minute Of Silence" Law As Impermissible State Sponsorship Of Religion

Writing for the Court, however, Justice Stevens made it immediately clear that the Alabama law, which was intended from its inception to reintroduce prayer into the schools, would not pass constitutional muster. The district court's conclusion that there was no constitutional barrier to state-sponsored religion was, he wrote, "remarkable." Stevens first rehearsed the history of the Establishment C…

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