One of the fundamental principles of United States government and law is separation of church and state. This principle was not always practiced and many early colonists experienced religious persecution. Toward the end of the 1700's, agreement emerged in the British colonies of North America favoring religious tolerance and separat

Since colonial time, public education across the United States included considerable religious content. The struggle over the issue of secular [not religious] public schools has been going on for over two hundred years. Over many years, the meaning of secular, as applied to public schools has changed. In the beginning it simply meant that schools were controlled by government officials, rather than by church officials. No single religious organization controlled the schools. But since the vast majority of the United States citizens were Protestant Christians, Protestant values set the agenda for public schools. Bible reading and prayer, both of a distinctly Protestant influence, were a normal daily activity in most public schools. Roman Catholics, Jews, and other religious minorities objected. Many felt out of place and some felt they were being pressured to practice Protestant religion in conflict with their families' own religious beliefs. Many Catholic parents took their children out of the public schools and enrolled them in the growing numbers of private schools run by their church. From 1913 until the early 1950's, state governments across the country decided to standardize and write into law the practice of Bible reading and prayer in their states' public schools. School prayer was commonly practiced throughout the United States-but not entirely accepted. There were some students and their parents who were uncomfortable with the practice of school prayer-and a few went to court to challenge it.

In November 1995, two constitutional amendments pertaining to school prayer were introduced in Congress. The first, known as the Religious Equality Amendment, introduced by Representative Henry Hyde, a Republican from Illinois, read: "Neither the United States nor any state shall deny benefits to or otherwise discriminate against any private person or group on account of religious expres

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