I have a term paper that I have to write tonight (all nighter) and I thought that it would be best if I wrote it here. Things flow better for me on this site. I'm not finished yet. I just need a break right now. Murray vs. Curlett: Classroom Prayer and Bible Readings--Unconstitutional Forty-one years ago, on June 17, 1963, the United States Supreme Court put an end to reverential Bible readings and prayer recitation in our nation's public schools. This landmark decision was decided on the basis that this practice was in direct violation of the plaintiffs rights "to freedom of religion under the First and Fourteenth Amendments." Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Establishment Clause: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The original intent of the Establishment Clause was to prohibit the federal government from declaring and financially supporting a national religion. During the 18th century many other countries were using their resources to promote a uniform religion. It has been heavily rumored that the Establishment Clause was created to prevent the federal government from supporting Christianity in general. The First Amendment does guarantee the basic right of religious liberty but the Establishment Clause was created to ensure that no religion would be formally endorsed over another. Issues pertaining to the Establishment Clause were originally introduced to the Supreme Court in the 1947 case of Everson vs. Board of Education. The Supreme Court ruled that using state funds to reimburse parents for the cost of transporting students to and from parochial schools did not violate the Establishment Clause. This case set the precedent for the contemporary interpretations of the purposes of the Establishment Clause. All nine justices agree that the clause was intended to do far more than merely prohibit the establishment of a state religion. Amendment XIV Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The Fourteenth Amendment ensures that no state has the right to take away any rights that are inherently given to all Americans. Therefore, it was determined on June 17, 1963 that public schools in the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania had been in violation of the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause by allowing classroom prayer and Bible readings during instructional time--and with that decision the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania were also in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Mandatory prayer recitation was officially labeled unconstitutional THE CASE(S) In most history and law books this landmark decision is noted as Abington Township School District vs. Schempp. In 1949, a statewide law was passed in Pennsylvania that required public school students to read scriptures from the Bible and recite the Lords Prayer everyday in class. This law stayed intact until Edward Schempp (father of the student) challenged it all of the way to the Supreme Court fourteen years later. Mr. Schempp's case was argued on the 28th of February in 1963. His claim was that required reading for the Bible and recitation of the Lords Pray prohibited free exercise of religion for his children, and was therefore unconstitutional, under the First Amendment. This case was accepted for review by the Supreme Court and logged as No. 142. However, there was a case that was logged as No. 119 and was heard on the 27th of February in 1963. This case also dealt with state-approved reading of Bible passages before classes in public school. In light of the similarity in the cases, the Supreme Court decided that both the Abington Township School District vs. Schempp case and this case would be decided together as a joint case. On the 17th of June, 1963, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against the allowance of the recitation of Bible verses and the Lord's prayer. Normally when cases are joined by the Supreme Court the case that has been accepted and heard first is the case for which the decision is named. In this case, however, the landmark decision was named Abington Township School District vs. Schempp instead of its original case: Murray vs. Curlett. The reason why many believe that Murray vs. Curlett is not the official case that removed classroom prayer and Bible readings from the classroom is because the plaintiffs in the case, Madalyn Murray (later O'Hair) and her son William J. Murray III, were devout Atheists. 1n 1905, the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City adopted a rule that implemented the holding of open religious exercises in the schools of the city. These exercises consisted primarily of the "reading without comment, of a chapter in the Holy Bible and/or the use of the Lord's Prayer." All those who wished not to participate were supposed to "move their lips as if reciting the prayer" so that they wouldn't offend the religious and prayerful students in the room.(The Matter of Prayer) William J. Murray III (also known as Bill) was a student in Baltimore City. He was a self-proclaimed atheist who was reluctant to participate in the prayers/Bible readings. He enlisted the support of his mother, Madalyn Murray, to help him understand why it was necessary for religion to be incorporated in his school. Madalyn, mother of two, describes why she felt obliged to pursue eliminating this practice within her child's school: "I was shamed into it by my son, Bill, who came to me in 1960 -- he was 14 then -- and said: 'Mother, you've been professing that you're an atheist for a long time now. Well, I don't believe in God either, but every day in school I'm forced to say prayers, and I feel like a hypocrite. Why should I be compelled to betray my beliefs?' I couldn't answer him. He quoted the old parable to me: 'It is not by their words but by their deeds that ye shall know them' -- pointing out that if I was a true atheist, I would not permit the public schools of America to force him to read the Bible and say prayers against his will. He was right. Words divorced from action supporting them are meaningless and hypocritical. So we began the suit." Playboy Interview October, 1965 On November 17, 1960 Madalyn was able to force the school board to amend the prayer requirements so that her sons could be excused from participating in the exercise. That amendment read: Any child shall be excused from participating in the opening excercises upon written request of his parent of guardian. Madalyn was not happy with just the amendment, she wanted to have the respondent school board rescind the rule; but after her attempts were unsuccessful she filed suit against John N. Curlett, the president of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City, for the cancellation of the practice. Madalyn was a law school graduate and tax payer within the Baltimore City school district and she petitioned that the rights of her son's Atheistic beliefs were violated "in that (the morning prayer) threatens (his) religious liberty by placing a premium on belief against non-belief and subjects (his) freedom of conscience to the rule of the majority; it pronounces belief in God as the source of all moral and spiritual values, equating these values with religious values, and thereby renders sinister, alien, and suspect the beliefs and ideals of your Petitioners, promoting doubt and question of their morality, good citizenship and good faith." Madalyn filed for an order (writ of mandamus) that was to be issued from the Superior Court of Baltimore directly to the Board of School Commissions of Baltimore City to rescind the rule which provided for opening exercises that embraced Bible reading and prayer recitation in public schools. The rule that Madalyn wanted to be rescinded was Section 6 of Article VI of the Rules of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City. It read: Section 6 - Opening Exercises. Each School, whether collectively or in classes, shall be opened by the reading, without comment, of a chapter in the Holy Bible and/or the use of the Lord's Prayer. The Douay version may be used by those pupils who prefer it. Appropriate patriotic exercises should [also] be held as part of the general opening exercise of the school or class. The lawyers on behalf of John N. Curlett and the City of Baltimore filed a demurrer in response to Madalyn's writ of mandamus. A demurrer indicates that the writ of mandamus was accurate but is too insufficient and insignificant to proceed in a court of law. On April 27, 1961 the Superior Court of Baltimore City agreed that the evidence submitted in the writ of mandamus was insufficient and they stated that the demurrer was sustained. Madalyn appealed the decision and lost again on April 1, 1962 in the Court of Appeals. She had sixty days to appeal so she decided to file an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. THE FALL OUT Madalyn's case was not heard by the Supreme Court until February of 1963. The merits of the case were strictly based on the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The June 17th decision gave Madalyn Murray O'Hair the title of the "woman who kicked God out of the classroom." In 1964 Life magazine called her the most hated woman in America. She was the target of the nation's disdain. Her family was targeted, chastised, and threatened. Madalyn did not anticipate she would be held in such low esteem by Americans. "I knew (the case) wasn't going to make me the most popular person woman in Baltimore, but I sure as hell didn't anticipate the tidal wave of virulent, vindictive, murderous hatred that thundered down on top of me and my family in its wake. The neighborhood children, of course, were forbidden by their parents to play with my little boy, Garth, so I finally got him a little kitten to play with. A couple of weeks later we found it on the porch with its neck wrung." Playboy Interview (October, 1965) Despite the hardships that she and her family faced during and after her court case, as a Communist and Atheist advocate Madalyn did enjoy how much publicity she and her cause were receiving. It was through her notoriety she founded the American Atheists, a national organization for Atheists. Despite being an Army veteran and a law school graduate, Madalyn struggled financially. As the self proclaimed foremost separator of church and state, she felt that she could use name to illicit more Atheists and in turn earn more profit for her organization. She moved with her family to Texas after fleeing arrest warrants in Maryland for allegedly assaulting five police officers (they invaded her home questioning the whereabouts of Billy's girlfriend). Madalyn Murray O'Hair was able to market herself as the Atheist crusader and her fame afforded her the platform to garner income from her admirers and supporters. Her Atheism movement, however, took a horrible blow in 1980 when her son, Bill, announced that he had fully accepted Christianity and was no longer an Atheist. Bill had felt like a prop in his mother battles against everything against everything she hated in bourgeios America.() Madalyn had referred to Bill as the reason why she fought so vehemently to rid prayer from the classroom and she was devastated by her son's conversion. She severed all ties with Bill and devoted more attention to her next of kin, son Jon Garth and granddaughter Robin (Bill's child). THE END OF AN ERA The American Atheists often hired ex-convicts to do office work. Madalyn was a rebel herself and she felt that ex-cons would be willing to work in unconventional working environments for relatively little pay. In 1993, Madalyn hired David Waters, an ex-con with an extended criminal background. During his tenure, an expensive computer and other valuable bonds were stolen, but Madalyn still entrusted Waters with the bank accounts when she and her family left town. Waters took advantage of her trust and decided to lay off all of staff and empty the bank accounts for over 50,000 when Madalyn and her coworkers left for a business trip. When Madalyn returned she was furious and decided to press charges against Waters. Although a convicted felon, Waters was only given probation and ordered to give back the money. Madalyn was not happy with the leniency of the verdict so she decided to publish an article in her atheist newsletter that exposed Waters as a true threat to society. She highlighted all of his convictions and instances of foul play while also indicating that he received a light sentence only because he had stolen from atheist. This obviously did not sit well with Waters. Shortly thereafter Madalyn and Robin disappeared. Jon Garth had been seen withdrawing large sums of money and exchanging them for gold coins before he also disappeared. Originally people had thought that because many of their personal accounts had been emptied (along with funds from the American Atheists organization) that they had staged their disappearance through embezzlements. But after they remained missing for three years, the search mission soon turned into a recovery mission. Madalyn had acquired many enemies during her lifetime -- some even within her own organization. It was very hard for prosecutors to unravel the mystery that was the O'Hairs disappearance. Everything came together when prosecutors got a tip from Danny Fry's fiancee that he had also been missing. It had turned out that Fry, Waters, and another ex-con Gary Karr had worked together to kidnap Madalyn, Robin, and Jon Garth. Waters and Kerr had Jon Garth gather as much money that he could get his hands on while Fry watched Madalyn and Robin. Jon cooperated in hopes that Waters would free his mother and niece. After Jon emptied the bank accounts that Waters requested, Waters returned and killed Madalyn, Robin, and Jon Garth. He also killed Danny Fry a couple days later. Waters and his girlfriend celebrated their newfound wealth by throwing multiple parties. During one of these parties they placed all of their gold coins in a locker, and all of the contents of the lockers were stolen in an unrelated theft. Waters violated his parole on firearm possession and was sent back to prison. He never faced trial for the kidnapping and murder of the Murray-O'Hairs. He revealed the location of the missing bodies in a plea bargain agreement. Waters died in prison in January of 2003. Gary Karr also was in prison on unrelated charges prior to the new evidence being gathered in the Murray-O'Hairs case. Without the bodies as evidence (Waters confession came after Karr's trial), Karr beat the charges of kidnapping and murder but was sentenced to life after being convicted of extorsion and money laundering. THE IMPACT The Murray vs. Curlett definitely had an impact on our nation. It is estimated that over 90% of Americans believe in a higher power. Madalyn Murray O'Hair helped give that small percentage of people who aren't religious the majority voice in education. Although many historians argue that Madalyn main objective was to promote Atheism, she was able to deter teachers from implementing religious principles into their traditional coursework. Today, teachers often refrain from any type of discussion that are religious oriented in fear that they will violate the First Amendment. Many argue that schools today promote relativism and that the secularism that exists in education is primarily responsible for the decline in social and family values. The rate of students who are attending private and parochial schools has continued to increase, and the alleged Atheism that many parents believe is promoted in public school is one of the major contributing factors of this trend. Madalyn Murray O'Hair's life was one of passion, persistence, and tragedy. The irony of her story was that in her attempt to eliminate religion from education, she actually helped educate others of the essence of religion.
