Yay they win!
President and Supreme Court
- President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The Schempps wanted to have the practice abandoned. A federal district court sided with the schempps and found Pennsylvania's law unconstitutional.
Constitutional Issue
- Chief Justice : Earl Warren
- Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan ll, William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White, Arthur Goldberg
The court had decided that a religious prayer had no place in public schools. However, reading the Bible in schools had been a common practice for many years. The Bible recitation in public schools violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Events
- Vietnam War
- Civil Rights ( Martin Luther King Jr. gives "I have a dream" speech
- Gas prices were 29 cents a gallon
- Popular musicians were Buddy Holly and Bob Dylan
- Alcatraz prison is emptied of its last inmates
Abington School District v. Schempp
The Dissenting Opinion
Justice Potter Stewart was the only one to disagree with the Abington decision. His concerns were that the rights of parents who wish to have their children take part in a religious prayer, and the right of the children themselves, were being denied.
What the case was about
Two children of the Schempp family objected to the Pennsylvania law the required ten verses of the Bible to be read aloud at the opening of each school day. The Scempps objected to the readings because Unitarians don't believe that the Bible is always intelligible when read literally. Also, they objected to their children being sent into the hallway during the readings. They said that the Bible readings violated their rights under the free exercis clause of the First Amendment.