About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

13 J. Pub. L. 475 (1964)
Prayer and Politics: The Impact of Engel and Schempp on the Political Process

handle is hein.journals/emlj13 and id is 479 raw text is: PRAYER AND POLITICS: THE IMPACT OF ENGEL AND
SCHEMPP ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS*
William M. Beaney
Edward N. Beisertf
To MANY AMERICANS THE OUTRIGHT REFUSAL of some state and local
authorities to accept the constitutional rules set forth in the 1954 School
Segregation Case' was shocdig and unprecedented. Students of American
public law, however, have long recognized that the pronouncements of
any court, high or low, may prove in practice to have far less significance
because of the conscious resistance of officials whose duties include the
administration of the newly announced law. A quite different explanation
of non-enforcement occasionally arises from the ignorance of officeholders
as to the actual law applicable to a situation confronting them, but non-
enforcement resulting from official ignorance has far less negative impact
on social values than do inaction and opposition originating in avowed
resistance to court declared norms of behavior. While the openness and
pervasiveness of resistance after 1954 seemed novel, Americans of every
generation since the founding of the Republic have chosen at times to
disregard unpopular laws, or to temper their application so that they
remain formally alive, but become meaningless in practice.
Students of constitutional law have, on the whole, been disinclined to
examine the impact of Supreme Court decisions.2 They have preferred
to trace the development of doctrine in successive Court decisions with
the tacit assumption that the law is obeyed except in those relatively rare
instances where state or lower federal courts have refused to follow the
* The authors wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to the following individuals
whose personal assistance, and where indicated, that of their staff, provided valuable data
and helpful insights: Hon. Frank J. Becker (R. N.Y.) and his staff; Hon. Emmanuel
Celler (D. N.Y.), and from his staff Mrs. Bess E. Dick, Staff Director, and Mr. Stuart
H. Johnson, Jr., Counsel; Rev. Dean M. Kelley, Executive Director, Department of
Religious Liberty, National Council of Churches; Dr. Leo Pfeffer, General Counsel,
American Jewish Congress and members of his staff; Mr. Sol Rabkin, Chief of the Law
Department of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and members of his staff,
especially Mr. Robert Frankel; and Mr. John Bechler, Washington correspondent of the
Associated Press, who covered the Becker Amendment hearings.
t Professor of Politics and Cromwell Professor of Law, Princeton University; co.
author with MASON, AmERIcAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAw (3d ed. 1964).
tt Kent Fellow, Assistant in Instruction, Princeton University; currently engaged in a
study of the treatment of the reapportionment issue by the lower state and federal courts.
I Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
2 Some exceptions include Patric, The Impact of a Court Decision: Aftermath of the
McCollum Case, 6 J. PuB. L. 455 (1957); Patric & Sorauf, Zorach v. Clauson: The
Impact of a Supreme Court Decision, 53 Am. POL. ScI. REV. 777 (1959). A notable study
of the impact of Supreme Court decisions on Congress is MURPHY, CONGRESS AND THE
COURT (1962). There are numerous studies examining various aspects of efforts to imple-
ment the desegregation rulings. See, for example, PELTASON, FwrY-EiGHT LONELY MEN
(1961).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most