Sen. Everett Dirksen, the Senate minority leader, disclosed yesterday he planned to force a fight in the Senate in a bid to overturn the latest U.S. Supreme Court ban on prayers in public schools.
The Illinois Republican leader told the Washington chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, the professional journalism society, that he did not intend “to let nine men tell 190,000,000 Americans, including children, where and when they can say their prayers.” He declined to reveal any details of his planned Senate battle.
The action which aroused Sen; Dirksen was the ruling of the court last December 13 rejecting an appeal from a group of parents in Queens who had asked that their children be allowed to pray voluntarily in their classrooms. The case was the first involving voluntary prayer to reach the high court since its 1962 and 1963 decisions banning prayers specifically ordered by public school officials.
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