AGO 81-003.

• Case Date: February 03, 1981
• Court: North Dakota

North Dakota Attorney General Opinions 1981. AGO 81-003. STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION 81-3Date Issued: February 3, 1981Requested by: Representative Gayle Reiten--QUESTION PRESENTED-- Whether a law authorizing a school district to establish a period of silence not to exceed one minute for meditation or prayer at the commencement of the first class of each school day is constitutional.--ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION-- It is my opinion that a law which provides that a teacher may announce a period of silence not to exceed one minute for meditation or prayer at the commencement of the first class of each school day in all grades in the public schools does not violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution or Section 4 of the Constitution of North Dakota. --ANALYSIS-- The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .' United States Supreme Court decisions have made it clear that where the state prescribes the prayer to be said, even though the prayer is voluntary, there has been a violation of the 'establishment' clause. Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962); Abington School District v. Schemp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). The courts have prescribed a test against which to judge statutes alleged to violate the 'establishment' clause. The three part test is that the statute must have a secular purpose, that its primary effect must not be to enhance or inhibit religion, and that the statute or activity must not foster excessive government entanglement with religion. Committee for Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756 (1973); Ring v. Grand Forks Public School District No. 1, 483 F. Supp. 272 (D.C.N.D. 1980). This type of test was followed, for example, in Florey v. Sioux Falls School District 49-5, 619 F.2nd 1311 (8th Cir. 1980), which upheld a South Dakota school board's policy on Christmas observance and programs in the school. A three judge federal district court in Massachusetts upheld a statute similar to the proposed law in Gaines v. Anderson, 421 F. Supp. 337 (D.C. Mass. 1976). The only difference in the statutes was that the...