well, Goldcatt's explanation of a CAPTIVE audience makes sense to a degree...but i still see no amendment in the Bill of rights religion clause that protects the non religious, from the government over reach, yet this is what the religious clause in the first amendment has been twisted in to....?
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Exactly. And this is where you get into the tension between Establishment and Exercise.
Does the right of any one student or group of students, majority or minority, to engage in government employee led religious activity during mandatory school hours supercede the right of all other individuals or groups to not participate in government led religious activities...period? That's your balance for teacher led prayer in school, and the answer seems pretty clear. Exercise can easily occur individually and/or outside school hours.
Now go on to your example of the coach offering a prayer. What are the facts? Is this a publicly funded activity with a government employee serving as the coach, and are otherwise eligible children excluded from this government-funded and sanctioned event for not participating? Are they free to do other things while the prayer is going on? How old are the students? Then apply your principles and balance your outcome. Is this a captive audience? How susceptible are the children? What is the net effect on parental rights vs. government control?
The balance gets murkier, doesn't it? Which is why there is no one easy answer, and no one test to be applied. I wish it were that simple, but the religion clauses are to some extent inherently contradictory to the point that many cases are individual judgment calls. Which makes it difficult for the people trying to follow the rules, so they follow the most restrictive set possible to avoid potential lawsuits. Speech is a cake walk compared to questions where the two religion clauses butt heads.
Look at it this way, if the Courts have never quite been able to resolve the issues, none of us can be expected to on a message board. And in a way it's good to keep them alive and people debating them, it means we never become complacent.
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