Court, Constitution and Prayer

Supreme Court decisions that arouse furor are hardly unprecedented. Throughout its history, the Court has witnessed reactions of outrage to this or that decision, generally accompanied by demands to amend the Constitution, impeach the Justices or restrict the powers or jurisdiction of the Court. ¹ The furor, however, which greeted the Engel v. Vitale ² invalidation of the public school recitation of the New York Regents' prayer, though apparently short-lived, was probably unusual in its intensity. The decision was deplored and damned on and off the floor of Congress, ³ and Senators and Representatives rushed to sponsor resolutions for amendments to the Constitution to nullify the decision. ⁴ The Governors' Conference, which happened to be meeting about that time, adopted a resolution, with only the governor of New York abstaining, deploring the decision and calling for a constitutional amendment to overrule it. ⁵ Representative George W. Andrews of Alabama, combining his displeasure with The Prayer Case and with The School Segregation Cases, ⁶ stated: "They put the Negroes in the schools, and now they've driven God out." ⁷