Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Publication
Virginia Law Review
Volume
110
Abbreviation
Va. L. Rev.
First Page
1619
Abstract
In a series of two decisions known as the School Prayer Cases, the Supreme Court famously held that the Establishment Clause forbids state-sponsored prayer in public schools—even where the government provides opt-outs for dissenters. Yet subsequent legal developments have rendered those decisions unstable. And with the Court’s recent turn to “historical practices and understandings,” many question whether the School Prayer Cases can possibly survive.
It is too soon to tell where the Court’s renewed focus on Founding-era history might lead. But this Article contends, contrary to both some originalist Justices and their critics, that a focus on history does not spell the end of the School Prayer Cases. On the contrary, it may well place those decisions on firmer ground.
In a recent opinion, the Supreme Court observed that state-sponsored school prayer bears some relation to at least one “hallmark” of Founding-era establishments—namely, laws requiring citizens to attend worship in the established church. Contrary to what some Justices have suggested, however, the problem with these Founding-era laws was not that they lacked exemptions for dissenters. Rather, for the Founding generation, laws mandating attendance at state-sponsored worship were objectionable, opt-outs or no, because such laws exceeded the government’s rightful authority. On this view, the key feature of the School Prayer Cases is not the presence or absence of exemptions or proof of individual coercion. Instead, it is the government’s claimed right to mandate attendance at worship in the first place, no matter how tolerant the scheme. And understanding that point may offer important insight into larger questions about the propriety and limits of government-sponsored prayer, inside as well as outside of public schools.