Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Right of prayer in the public space

Uh, gb

That was a perfect illustration of Art's point, in every respect. An interesting sidebar is that it was a 5-to-4 decision in which Conservative Anthony Kennedy joined the majority, and first articulated what's known as the "coercion test":

"As we have observed before, there are heightened concerns with protecting freedom of conscience from subtle coercive pressure in the elementary and secondary public schools. Our decisions in [Engel] and [Abington] recognize, among other things, that prayer exercises in public schools carry a particular risk of indirect coercion. The concern may not be limited to the context of schools, but it is most pronounced there. What to most believers may seem nothing more than a reasonable request that the nonbeliever respect their religious practices, in a school context may appear to the nonbeliever or dissenter to be an attempt to employ the machinery of the State to enforce a religious orthodoxy."

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