An effort by a local school board to by-pass the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on school prayers was rebuffed yesterday by the State Supreme Court in a ruling with statewide effect.
The state law required reading of five verses of the Old Testament and allowed the reading, out loud, of the Lord’s Prayer. Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June, the school Board of Hawthorne passed a resolution ordering the Hawthorne school superintendent to permit the practices to continue.
The resolution was appealed by the state attorney general, Arthur J. Stiles, to the Superior Court which called the resolution unconstitutional. The Hawthorne board appealed to the State Supreme Court. The State High Court upheld the Superior Court ruling as “patently sound,” in a seven to nothing decision. Attorney General Stiles ruled immediately that the state law allowing such prayers was unconstitutional.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
