184.Everson v. Board Of Education (1947): The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto from archive.org

Everson v. Board Of Education (1947) 

The Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education 330 U.S. 1. (1947) prepared 
the dismissal of religion from American public schools. We are hidden by more than a 
half-century from the shock and numbness this new doctrine of "separation of church and 
state" occasioned, a great bewilderment caused in part by the absence of any hint of such 
a separation doctrine in the Declaration, Constitution, or the Bill of Rights. 



The Court, which erected the wall of separation, went on to radically change the entire 
face of American jurisprudence, establishing firmly a principle which had only operated 
spottily in the past, the "judicial review" power which made the judiciary final arbiter of 
which laws were legal. No longer could the people's representatives expect that by 
working for legislation, their will would be honored by the courts. A new and higher 
power had spoken, a power with the ability to dispense with religion in government 
facilities, including schools and the towns and villages of America where public property 
was concerned. 

Everson was no simple coup d'etat, but an act of Counter- Reformation warfare aimed at 
the independent and dissenting Protestant-Christian traditions of America. To understand 
the scope of this campaign, you have to look at a selection of court decisions to 
appreciate the range of targets Everson was intended to hit: 

Item: A verbal prayer offered in a school is unconstitutional, even if it is both 
denominationally neutral and voluntarily participated in. Engel v. Vitale, 1962; Abington 
v. Schempp, 1963; Commissioner of Ed. v. School Committee ofLeyden, 1971. 

Item: Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, 
at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. 
Chandler Unified School District, 1981. 

Item: If a student prays over lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud. Reed v. 
van Hoven, 1965. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for kindergarten students to recite: "We thank you for the birds 
that sing; We thank you [God] for everything," even though the word "God" is not 
uttered. DeSpain v. DeKalb County Community School District, 1967 '. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for a war memorial to be erected in the shape of a cross. Lowe 
v. City of Eugene, 1969. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for students to arrive at school early to hear a student 
volunteer read prayers. State Board of Ed. v. Board of Ed. ofNetcong, 1970. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for a Board of Education to use or refer to the word "God" in 
any of its official writings. State v. Whisner, 1976. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask during a school assembly whose 
birthday is celebrated by Christmas. Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, 1979. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for the Ten Commandments to hang on the walls of a 
classroom. Stone v. Graham, 1980; Ring v. Grand Forks Public School District, 19^; 
Lannerv. Wimmer, 1981. 



Item: A bill becomes unconstitutional even though the wording may be constitutionally 
acceptable, if the legislator who introduced the bill had a religious activity in his mind 
when he authored it. Wallace v. Jaffree, 1984. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to recite: "God is great, God is good, 
let us thank Him for our food." Wallace v. Jaffree, 1984. 

Item: It is unconstitutional for a graduation ceremony to contain an opening or closing 
prayer. Graham v. Central Community School District, 1985; Disselbrett v. Douglas 
School District, 1986. 

Item: In the Alaska public schools in 1987, students were told that they could not use the 
word "Christmas" in school because it had the word "Christ" in it. 

Item: In Virginia, a federal court ruled in 1987 that homosexual newspapers may be 
distributed on a high school campus, but religious newspapers may not be. 

Item: In 1987, a 185-year-old symbol of a Nevada city had to be changed because of its 
"religious significance." 

Item: In 1988, an elementary school principal in Denver removed the Bible from the 
school library. 

Item: In Colorado Springs, 1993, an elementary school music teacher was prevented from 
teaching Christmas carols because of alleged violations of the separation of church and 
state. 

Item: In 1996, ten-year-old James Gierke, of Omaha, was prohibited from reading his 
Bible silently during free time in the Omaha schools. 

Item: In 1996, the chief administrative judge of Passaic County, New Jersey, ruled juries 
could no longer be sworn in using the Bible. 

Item: In 2000, Ohio's state motto, "With God, all things are possible," was ruled 
unconstitutional by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because it expressed "a 
uniquely Christian thought." 

Judaism