Illinois Moment of Silence Law Faces Constitutional Challenge
In Illinois, a 14-year-old girl and her well-known atheist father have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new state law that requires students to observe a brief moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. Students may use the brief period for prayer or simply to reflect.
According to their attorney, the girl, Dawn Sherman, and her dad, radio talk show host Robert Sherman, are asking that the court declare the new Illinois law unconstitutional.
Attorney Gregory Kulis says that the new state "moment of silence" law in Illinois is an attempt to inject religion into public schools, which is a violation of the First Amendment requirement of separation of church and state. The Sherman's lawsuit also asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop public schools in Illinois from obeying the law until the case is decided.
In their lawsuit, the Shermans name Governor Rod Blagojevich and officials of Township High School District 214 as defendants. Venetia Miles, a spokeswoman for the school district, says that the schools will continue to obey the law.
A spokeswoman for Governor Blagojevich, Abby Ottenhoff, has said that the "moment of silence" law was passed over the governor's veto.
"We don't believe requiring time for reflection is the role of government," Ottenhoff said.
Robert Sherman said that he asked the school board to ignore the law, but his request was flatly rejected. The school board informed him that they would indeed have the moment of silence in the schools. He says that he then decided to take the issue to court.
Sherman said, "What we object to is Christians passing a law that requires the public school teacher to stop teaching during instructional time, paid for by the taxpayers, so that Christians can pray."
Before the new law was passed, there was already an Illinois law in place called the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act that allowed schools to observe a moment of silence if they wanted. The new law only changed one word of the existing law, now rather than saying that schools "may" observe a moment of silence, the law now says that schools "shall" observe a moment of silence.
The new law had originally passed during the spring legislative session, but Governor Blagojevich vetoed it because he said that he had doubts about its constitutionality. Lawmakers overrode the veto in October and passed the law.
Sherman's lawsuit is not his first church-and-state case and not the first to involve his children. Previously Sherman has fought for the removal of religious symbols from city seals and a ban on Boy Scout meetings at public schools.
It may be that Sherman is not the only person who has a problem with the new law. There have been complaints by some school administrators that the law is not clearly defined and creates an awkward position for some teachers and students.
Brian McCarthy, an attorney for the school district says that while the Shermans may have legitimate concerns over the new law, they are suing the wrong party.
McCarthy said that "The General Assembly for better, worse, foolish or wise passed this law and it's not up to school districts to pick and choose which laws they follow. He needs to go after the entity that enforces that law."