The United States Court of Appeals will be asked to rule on the constitutional validity of a New York State Appellate Division decision which has upheld the non-compulsory recitation of a prayer in the state’s public schools, it was announced today by the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The state’s Appellate Division unanimously rejected the CLU suit in a decision handed down this week. The suit, filed on behalf of five parents whose children attend school in the nearby Nassau County, had been rejected earlier by the New York Supreme Court. Three of the five plaintiffs in the current suit are Jewish.
According to the CLU, the recitation of the prayer–first recommended by the New York State Board of Regents in 1951–violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The prayer reads: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country.”
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