Brown Ex Rel. Brown v. Gilmore

Today the majority spurns controlling precedent in upholding the constitutionality of a Virginia statute that establishes religion in the public schools of the Commonwealth. By mandating a “minute of silence” at the start of each schoolday, the Commonwealth has engaged in a thinly veiled attempt to reintroduce state-sanctioned prayer into its schools. See Va. Code Ann. § 22.1-203 (Michie 2000) (the ‘Virginia statute”). Because the Virginia statute is repugnant to the Constitution’s Establishment Clause and erodes the separation between church and state, I must dissent.

The First Amendment,…