The Case Of Wallace Vs. Jaffree

Wallace vs Jaffree was a United States Supreme Court case on June 4, 1985 that ruled 6-3 that an Alabama statute that authorized a one minute period of silence in all public schools violated the First Amendment. This ruling caused many people were angry with the way the schools handled the complaint.
The complaint was filed in May 1982 by Ishmael Jaffree, but did not initially mention any statute. Before filing the case, he talked to one of the children's teachers about stopping the prayer, She said that the prayer would be continues but participation was not required. He searched for a declaratory judgement and an injunction restraining the defendants from “maintaining or allowing the practice of regular religious prayer service or other
forms of religious observances”. The children said that their teachers led prayer in class and religious indoctrination during class, despite Jaffree's multiple requests for it to be stopped. The next month, the complaint had some minor changes that included more defendants. It opposed the constitutionality of these three state statutes; 1978, created a minute of silence for medication, 1981, added option of voluntary prayer, 1982, authorized a teacher to recite a prayer with ‘willing students’.
The statute from 1978 authorized a one minute, moment of silence in the classroom for ‘mediation’.
The statute was amended in 1981 to allow mediation or voluntary prayer during the moment of silence. Many people believed that it was amended to try to bring back prayer in public schools. In 1982 Fob James, the Governor of Alabama who believed in school prayer, called a special legislative session because he wanted approval for a mandate stating that teachers were allowed to willingly lead prayers in the classroom. This led to another law that authorized the teacher to lead “willing students” in prayer. The school in Mobile County, Alabama allowed teachers to lead prayer in their
classroom.
Jeffree's youngest child’s kindergarten teacher led the class in a daily song that says “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. By His hands, we are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread.” Jaffree tried to stop this by going to the Alabama school officials. When that didn’t go his way he filed a suite in the U.S. District Court. Jaffree brought up some of the same complaints that Schempp brought up two decades before. The state asked the U.S.
Supreme Court to review the ruling of the court. In 1984 the court made up their mind about the ruling in 1981, now they had to decide if the ruling in 1982 was constitutional. Jaffree argued that the ruling in 1982 was not constitutional, he argued that previous school prayer cases invalidated his case. The court ruled that the ruling in 1982 did not “in any way offend the Constitution”. The court said it “neither proscribes prayer; nor affirms religious belief; nor coerces religious exercise.” The Reagan administration agreed with the courts on the decision. It was said that these laws were “perfectly neutral with respect for other religious practices. It neither favors one religion over another nor conveys endorsement of
religion. Did Alabama law violate people's first amendment right? The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” which means that as long as the teacher isn’t forcing you to participate in religious activities in school during the moment of silence then that teacher is not violating the people’s First Amendment right. The court determined that constitutionally, the prayer and medication the Alabama school statute by applying the Secular Purpose Test. Before a law can be considered constitutional under the First Amendment, it must be applied to the Secular Purpose Test, which asks if the state's actual purpose was to endorse religion. The ruling of Wallace vs. Jaffree had a wide range of implications for states rights dealing with religion and prayer in schools. Alabama’s political leaders were some of the loudest opponents of this ruling. Alabama thought that many of its schools were ignoring this law and continues to participate in morning devotion, song, and prayer. Alabama’s support for keeping school prayer prompted state officials to take action. The Supreme Court case dealt with a serious blow and many parents wanted their children to continue starting the day off with prayer. Jaffree and his wife believed that their kids should be able to choose their own religion, or no religion. They thought that by the teacher leading her class in prayer and song that she was teaching their children to believe in that religion. The children had the opportunity to not participate in it but Jaffree argued that if their children didn’t participate then the other classmates would think differently of them for not participating.