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         March 22, 2010        

General Assembly again rejects
Sherman's efforts to amend
"Moment of Silence" law

The Illinois General Assembly has again refused Rob Sherman's request that the Student Prayer Act, commonly known as the "Moment of Silence" law, be amended to allow students to engage in any silent activity of their choice which does not interfere with the ability of any other student to do the same thing.

The Student Prayer Act requires all public school students to silently pray at the beginning of each school day.  Those who refuse the State's demand -- that they pray about anything that they want to pray about -- are afforded an extremely narrowly defined alternate activity.  They are required to silently reflect on one very specific State-chosen topic:  The anticipated activities of the day.

Religious kids are permitted to pray about any topic they want.  Non-religious kids are required to silently reflect on a State-chosen topic -- the anticipated activities of the day.

This law is obviously unconstitutional, because the clear purpose of the law is to advance religion.  It's to get religious kids to pray and to get non-religious kids to think about praying.  There is no other purpose.  Even the sponsor of the current law, Senator Kimberly Lightford, famously told the press, "Every day, the General Assembly begins each day with a prayer.  I don't get a choice in the matter, so I don't see why our kids should have a choice."  In addition, Senator Lightford told me, on Chicago Tonight on Channel 11, "The General Assembly begins each day with a prayer, led by a priest, a rabbi or some sort of clergy.  I believe that it would be a contradiction for us not to suggest that our youth do it, too."

Hello!  Legislative purpose?

The constitutionality of the Student Prayer Act was challenged in Federal Court by my daughter.  Dawn took on the entire Illinois General Assembly and won.  The Student Prayer Act was declared unconstitutional on January 21, 2009.

The Appellate Court, however, will reverse that decision, soon, because they base their decisions on politics, not the facts or the constitution.  With three Reagan appointees, all with ties to Notre Dame, hearing the appeal, Dawn's chances of prevailing are Zero, but the credibility of the Court is, similarly, Zero.  More on that tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Senator Lightford, who is actually a very nice and very well-meaning public servant, proposed Senate Bill 1658 on February 19, 2009, less than a month after Dawn won in Federal Court.  This law, while still mandatory for schools to do it every day, would allow students to "reflect or meditate on any topic of their choosing."  Students, however, "must not engage in any activity that distracts or interferes with other students."  Senate Bill 1658 would also delete the requirement that students either pray or engage in "silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day."  In its place would be a requirement that students engage in "silent reflection or meditation.  Students may reflect or meditate on any topic of their choosing."

Even the name of the law would change.  It would no longer be the Student Prayer Act.  Instead, the law's new name would be "the Student Silent Reflection Act."

Since the General Assembly clearly wants a mandatory period of silence at the beginning of each school day, and since this law clearly has a secular purpose and is, therefore, constitutional, I testified in support of the law's passage at the hearing of the Senate Education Committee on March 5, 2009.

The last thing, however, that the General Assembly wants in a Moment of Silence law is for it to be secular.  The whole purpose of the law is for the General Assembly to pressure kids into praying, or at least thinking about praying.  Because this is the attitude of the General Assembly, the Illinois Senate Education Committee voted down Senate Bill 1658 and my efforts to change the law to make it secular and constitutional were rejected by the General Assembly.

That was last year.

Last month, I was back in Springfield to testify on various pieces of legislation that are of interest to me.  While I was there in Springfield, I stopped by to say, "Hello," to Senator Lightford.

I asked her to resurrect Senate Bill 1658, since the prospects of success for Dawn was Zero, based on the unmistakable politics of the appellate judges who heard the Oral Arguments.  Senator Lightford declined my request because the General Assembly had made it very clear, the previous year, that they were strongly opposed to allowing students to reflect or meditate on any topic of their choosing.

The General Assembly wants public school students to pray at the beginning of each school day, and since the prospects are excellent that the Appellate Court will let the General Assembly get away with this unconstitutional purpose, there would be no chance that the General Assembly would consider amending the law at this point in time.  Therefore, Senator Lightford would not re-introduce her Bill at this time.

Regardless of how you feel about kids praying at the beginning of each school day, one thing is indisputable:  The intent of the Illinois General Assembly is to firmly reject any attempt to allow kids to reflect or meditate on any topic of their choosing at the beginning of each school day.  The General Assembly wants kids to pray at the beginning of each school day, and they'll do anything they can to stop efforts to allow kids the intellectual freedom to reflect or meditate on any topic of their choosing.

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