ABSTRACT
In Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 US 38, the US Supreme Court struck down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public school classrooms "for meditation or voluntary prayer." A federal district court upheld the law on the grounds that nothing in the US Constitution prohibited Alabama from establishing a state religion. The federal appellate court, however, ruled the law unconstitutional as being a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Warren E. Burger disagreed with the Court's assessment of legislative intent. He said the statute was meant to clarify children's right to pray voluntarily at school, and rather than moving toward an established religion, it promoted religious freedom. Jaffree broke no new ground because the Court had already forbidden government promotion of prayer in school. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. in a concurring opinion defended the Lemon test as a useful guide.
