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...various ways to circumvent the 1962 Supreme Court ruling. Some legal scholars think that one of these methods, the move by 19 states to authorize a moment of silence in classrooms, might eventually be approved under the reasoning applied by the Supreme Court majority last week to the Pawtucket crèche case (see box). But advocates of school prayer are no longer willing to wait or to settle for private meditation. Says the Rev. Jerry Falwell, leader of the Moral Majority: "We didn't fight for the right to keep silent." At the outset of an election year...
...indeed it ever did. At least until then, the deciding voice in church-state relations will continue to be that of the Supreme Court. But the accent in the court's voice seems to be changing too, as evidenced by the praise showered on last week's crèche decision by some of the conservative religious groups that have long seen the court as their special bugbear...
...case involved Pawtucket's use of public funds ($1,365 initially, $20 a year now) to buy and then reerect annually a crèche as part of a Christmas display that also featured such secular holiday symbols as reindeer and a Santa Claus house. Chief Justice Burger, writing for the court majority, found the Nativity scene to be a "passive" symbol and its presence in the display "no more an advancement or endorsement of religion than...the exhibition of literally hundreds of religious paintings in governmentally supported museums." Said Burger: "We are unable to perceive the Archbishop...
...some legal scholars, last week's decision on the Pawtucket crèche was a new departure by the court in interpreting the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."). Writing for the 5-4 majority, Chief Justice Warren Burger seemed to argue that the traditional guidelines-that a law must serve a secular purpose, neither advance nor inhibit religion, and not entangle the state in purely religious questions-were merely "useful," rather than mandatory. "A more flexible standard may be emerging," says U.S. Solicitor General...
...issues are not the same size. Many who could not care less about the crèche in Pawtucket would go to the wall of separation on the school-prayer decision, but both issues derive from minority protests. Without malice or belligerence, a Christian could reasonably ask: Whose country is it anyway...