Word: laycock
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...popular compromise proposal of recent years is a moment of silence. Douglas Laycock, associate dean of the University of Texas School of Law, who favors strict government neutrality toward religion, finds it hard to believe that it could be unconstitutional merely to tell a classroom of kids to keep quiet for a minute. He says, however, that "it's beastly hard to implement it in a fair way. Teachers do deliver messages, and the children do have understandings...
...civil-libertarian groups, this decision brought a choir of outrage singing full-voice. A whole clause of the Bill of Rights had been abolished, critics charged, and the whole concept of religious freedom was now imperiled. "On the really small and odd religious groups," said the University of Texas' Laycock, "it's just open season." The court itself was deeply split. In a spirited dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the majority's stance "is incompatible with our nation's fundamental commitment to individual religious liberty." As a result of the uproar, Congress is considering a law to restore...
...religious belief. The implications of such a change are radical and would call into question hundreds of settled cases. "This will tear the country and each county apart," says Seventh-Day Adventist Boothby. "The unfortunate result would be to create more religious controversy, discontent and disharmony." Says Laycock: "All sorts of astonishing things become O.K. The Constitution then means a lot less than we've thought." Theoretically, Congress could decide, for example, that it would pay the salaries of preferred members of the clergy. Even less outrageous consequences, such as requiring that all public functions begin with a nondenominational prayer...
Although Kennedy and company appear to defend religion, many legal scholars continue to maintain that faith is better protected by separation, since doing otherwise forces government to emphasize the secular. It would be better, contends law professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Texas, for the court to simply rule that "the government shouldn't celebrate religious holidays...
...three games that we've played, that's what we've been most sucessful at: throwing the football," Laycock says...