Law and Religion in American Education
in Michael D. Waggoner and Nathan C. Walker, eds.,The Oxford Handbook on Religion and Education, 2018
15 Pages Posted: 11 Dec 2018 Last revised: 19 Jul 2019
Date Written: 2018
Abstract
This Article analyzes the major United States Supreme Court cases on the role of religion in public schools, the role of government in religious schools, and the place of religious rights of students and parents in all schools. It shows how the Court’s religion cases have vacillated between principles of strict separation of church and state and accommodation and equal treatment of religion. It shows how the Court has slowly come to protect and enhance the freedom of parents and students to choose between public and private education. And it shows how the Court has long protected students from being coerced to participate in religion or to abandon their religious practices.
Keywords: First Amendment; establishment clause; free exercise clause; equal access; separation of church and state
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