Wallace v. Jaffree

At issue in Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) was whether a statute from Alabama could authorize a 1-minute period of silence in all public schools for meditation or voluntary prayer. The U.S. Supreme Court held that this law violated the First Amendment's Establishmen

The original complaint, which did not mention the Alabama statute, alleged that the plaintiff brought the action to seek a declaratory judgment and an injunction restraining the defendants-members of the Mobile County School Board, various school officials, and the minor plaintiffs' three teachers-from maintaining or allowing the practice of regular religious prayer services or other forms of religious observances in the Mobile County Public Schools. The complaint alleged that this practice was in violation of the First Amendment, made applicable to states by the ...