Abington School District v. Schempp
Schempp believed that, even with the change to allow students to leave the classroom, his children's relationships with their teachers and classmates would be adversely affected.[15][16] The Supreme Court granted certiorari to settle the persistent and vigorous protests resulting from its previous decision in Engel v. Vitale regarding religion in schools.Clark continued that the Court was of the feeling that regardless of the religious nature of the citizenry, the government at all levels, as required by the Constitution, must remain neutral in matters of religion "while protecting all, prefer[ring] none, and disparag[ing] none.""[20] Citing Torcaso v. Watkins, Justice Clark added, "We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person 'to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.'Such prohibited behavior was self-evident in the Pennsylvania law requiring Bible reading (and allowing recitation of the Lord's Prayer) in its public schools.The Court recognized the value of such ideal neutrality from lessons of history when government and religion were either fully fused or cooperative with one another and religious liberty was nonexistent or seriously curtailed.[21] Brennan argued that an originalist approach would be "misdirected", giving several reasons including the ambiguity of the historical record[22] and the increasing religious diversity of American society, which raised well-founded concerns about the traditional role of prayer and Bible reading in public schools.[23] Brennan later defended the "wall of separation" view of the Establishment Clause in other cases including a dissent in Marsh v. Chambers where he quoted his Schempp concurrence: "to be truly faithful to the Framers 'our use of the history of their time must limit itself to broad purposes, not specific practices'".He declared the cases consolidated with Schempp as "so fundamentally deficient as to make impossible an informed or responsible determination of the constitutional issues presented," specifically of whether the Establishment Clause was violated.Speaking from the evangelical perspective, Billy Graham said, "[i]n my opinion... the Supreme Court... is wrong.... Eighty percent of the American people want Bible reading and prayer in schools.