The American Jewish Committee made public today a fact sheet “to aid public understanding” of two cases testing the constitutionality of the Lord’s Prayer and Bible reading in the public schools scheduled for argument tomorrow before the United States Supreme Court.
A. M. Sonnabend, AJC president, said the fact sheet was “purely educational.” The document stressed that the basic question awaiting court determination was whether Bible readings and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer were “essential religious services, thus constituting an ‘establishment of religion’ in violation of the U. S. Constitution.”
The fact sheet also noted a variety of contradictory state court decisions on religious practices in public schools. In the two cases up before the Supreme Court for hearings, the lower courts also issued conflicting rulings. The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the practice of Bible reading and use of the Lord’s Prayer. But, in Pennsylvania, the courts ruled these practices unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
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