Word: pawtucket
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...Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision upholding inclusion of a crèche in a municipally financed Pawtucket, R.I., Christmas display, gave new heart to those who hope, and new worries to those who fear, that the court may now be less insistent on maintaining a "wall of separation between church and state."* Chief Justice Warren Burger, writing for the majority, called the wall "a useful figure of speech" but "not a wholly accurate description of the practical aspects of the relationship that in fact exists between church and state...
...tried 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...
...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...
...tepid nonsectarian prayer that led to the 1962 decision, and you wonder what all the breast beating was about: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country." Similarly, how could plaster-of-paris figures in Pawtucket, R.I., have alarmed anybody but the A.C.L.U., which brought the suit...