Abstract
The First Amendment prohibits any establishment of religion, a dicta that has been applied in an apparently inconsistent manner by the Supreme Court when called upon to evaluate various forms of verbal and nonverbal religious communication. Court decisions have approved religious prayers and displays in government settings. When such exercises and displays were introduced to the public school academic setting, the Court chose to disallow the practice. An examination of judicial opinions reveals that justices recognize three factors inherent to the academic setting which justify the apparently contradictory decisions. Because of the captive nature of the audience, the presence of peer pressure, and the unpredictability of pedagogical influences, the Supreme Court has significantly restricted religious communication in K-12 public schools.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Hemmer, J. J.
(2015).
The Influence of Setting on Supreme Court Religious Expression Decisions.
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal, 35(1).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2471-0032.1016
Included in
Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons, First Amendment Commons, Organizational Communication Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons
