Jewish Groups Rap Move to Restore Voluntary Prayer in Public Schools

The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith have called upon the Senate “to reconsider and reverse” its vote last Thursday on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms, a conservative Republican from North Carolina, that would permit voluntary prayer in the nation’s public schools.

At the some time, the American Jewish Congress said it was “dismayed and disappointed” by the Senate vote of 47-37 in favor of the Helms amendment and announced it would challenge the constitutionality of the measure–should it be accepted into law–in the federal courts.

Meanwhile, President Carter, in discussing the amendment with a group of editors last Friday at the White House, said “I think the government ought to stay out of the prayer business and let it be between a person and God, and not let it be part of a school program under any tangible constraints, either a direct order to a child to pray or an embarrassing situation where the child would be constrained to pray.”

The amendment, tacked on to an Administration bill establishing a new Cabinet-level department of education, would eliminate Supreme Court jurisdiction over state legislation governing voluntary worship in the public schools. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D. Conn.), who is managing the bill on the floor, hopes to overturn the vote before Congress begins its Easter recess Wednesday.

BASIS FOR OPPOSITION TO AMENDMENT

In a letter to members of the Senate, Justin Finger, director of ADL’s civil rights division, and Samuel Rabinove, AJCommittee’s legal director, pointed out that the amendment is “of dubious constitutionality, “and will create a chaotic situation in which some state courts might bar school prayers while others might permit the practice.

This would be a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as well as of the Supreme Court mandate against prayer in the public schools, they said. The letter noted that prayer in public schools was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962 as a practice clearly violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The following year, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a program in which passages from the Bible and the Lord’s Prayer were read in public schools.

The letter further noted that previous attempts to overturn the Supreme Court decision by amending the Constitution to allow voluntary recitation of prayers in public schools “failed largely because at the hearings on the proposed amendments, leaders of all faiths, as well as leading constitutional lawyers, testified against them.”

Albert Goldstein, chairman of the AJCongress commission on law and social action, said, “Although we have no position on the bill to establish a new Cabinet level department, we strongly oppose Senator Helms’ rider, which would bar the federal courts from hearing any case challenging a practice of ‘voluntary’ prayer in the public schools.” The Helms amendment, he said, “is a blatant attempt to circumvent the clear mandate of the Supreme Court, which has outlawed school prayers.”