Dating as far back as the late 1940's, there has been a struggle to both remove and replace God into our daily public social settings. Do our citizens have a right to do this? This nation was founded by our forefathers and deemed to be "under God", removing God from our schools and government buildings would contradict the original plans for our great nation. McCollum v. Board of Education first initiated the movement to take God out of our public schools, and since then we have done so. Today rulings have been passed to remove "under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance, and to discard many plaques listing the Ten Commandments in and around our governments local, state, and federal office buildings. We believe it is unethical to withdraw God from government and public school systems.
For many years, before the landmark decision in the case where Madalyn Murray O"Hair sued the Baltimore Public Schools because of her son being forced to participate in prayer, everyone was taught religion, and teacher led prayer was included in the daily routine. Although the ability to publicly pray in school has been eliminated, I believe there is no real reason for it. Why do our courts change laws for only a small percentage of our population? In 2000 several polls showed that over half of the Americans surveyed believed that public prayer in schools, and at public school events should be allowed. A lawsuit was filed on a Texas school district when it allowed the use of school equipment for Christian students to speak to the crowd, and pray over the stadium's PA system (Murphy, Jenny). The U.S. 5th Circuit Court ruled in February 1999 that prayer before school-sponsored games violated the First Amendment prohibition against the establishment of a religion by the state (Murphy). If a violation of our Constitutional rights is the argument here, isn't banning public prayer taking away our First Amendment right to free speech?.
