Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T19:48:06.712Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Curious Case of School Prayer: Political Entrepreneurship and the Resilience of Legal Institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2012

Bradley D. Hays
Bradley D. Hays*
Affiliation:
Union College
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Bradley D. Hays, Union College, 807 Union Street, Schenectady, NY 12308. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

School prayer represents a curiosity of Reagan era politics. Reagan and the social conservative movement secured numerous successes in accommodating religious practice and faith in the public sphere. Yet, when it came to restoring voluntary school prayer, conservatives never succeeded in securing the judicial victory that they sought despite conditions that seemingly favored change. Herein, we attempt to reconcile Reagan era successes with Reagan era failures by exploring Reagan's entrepreneurial activity to affect both the demand (i.e., judges) and supply (i.e., litigants) side of legal change. Identifying Reagan's entrepreneurial activities in his attempt to alter national social policy reveals the resilience of legal institutions to presidential and partisan regimes. Reagan's efforts to change national school prayer policy gained some measure of legislative success by securing the Equal Access Act but it failed to garner a change in school prayer jurisprudence. We conclude by noting that the difficulty of influencing both the demand and supply side of legal change in a timely manner and its implication for reconstructing policy through the courts.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , August 2012 , pp. 394 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abraham, Henry T. 1999. Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Clinton. New York, NY: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Balkin, Jack M., and Levinson, Sanford. 2001. “Understanding the Constitutional Revolution.” Virginia Law Review 87:1045–1109.Google Scholar
Blanshard, Paul. 1963. Religion and the Schools: The Great Controversy. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Steven P. 2002. Trumping Religion: The New Christian Right, the Free Speech Clause, and the Courts. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Burnham, Alexander. 1962. “Court's Decision Stirs Conflicts.” New York Times, June 27.Google Scholar
Caplan, Lincoln. 1987. The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 1966, 1971, 1982, 1984. Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly News Features.Google Scholar
Cook, Daniel M., and Polsky, Andrew J.. 2005. “Political Time Reconsidered: Unbuilding and Rebuilding the State Under the Reagan Administration.” American Politics Research 33:577–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1957. “Decision-Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as a National Policy Maker.” Journal of Public Law 6:279–95.Google Scholar
Dierenfield, Bruce J. 1997. “‘Somebody is Tampering with America's Soul’: Congress and the School Prayer Debate.” Congress & the Presidency 24:167–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Segal, Jeffrey A.. 2005. Advise and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Knight, Jack. 1998. The Choices Justices Make. Washington DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Ford, Gerald. 1976. “Presidential Campaign Debate.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=6517&st=school+prayer&st1= (Accessed on April 4, 2010).Google Scholar
Fried, Charles. 1991. Order and Law: Arguing the Reagan Revolution—A Firsthand Account. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Gillman, Howard. 2006. “Party Politics and Constitutional Change: The Political Origins of Liberal Judicial Activism.” In The Supreme Court and American Political Development, eds. Kahn, Ronald, and Kersch, Ken I.. Lawrence, KA: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Gillman, Howard. 2002. “How Political Parties Use Courts to Advance their Agendas: Federal Courts in the United States, 1875-1891.” American Political Science Review 96:511–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, Sheldon. 1997. Picking Federal Judges: Lower Court Selection from Roosevelt Through Reagan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Goldman, Sheldon. 1989. “Reagan's Judicial Legacy: Completing the Puzzle and Summing Up.” Judicature 72:318–330.Google Scholar
Hanrahan, John. 1988. “Kennedy Frowns on Arch-Conservative Legal Ideas.” United Press International, January 22.Google Scholar
Hertzke, Allen D. 1988. Representing God in Washington: The Role of Religious Lobbies in the American Polity. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Keck, Thomas M. 2004. The Most Activist Supreme Court in History: The Road to Modern Judicial Conservatism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kernell, Samuel. 1986. Going Public: New Strategies in Presidential Leadership. Washington DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Levinson, Sanford. 1995. Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Anthony. 1962. “Both Houses Get Bills to Lift Ban on School Prayer.” New York Times 27 June.Google Scholar
Maltzman, Forrest, Spriggs, James F., and Wahlbeck, Paul J.. 2002. Crafting Law on the Supreme Court: The Collegial Game. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry. 1985. “The Politicized Presidency.” In The New Direction in American Politics, eds. Chubb, John E., and Peterson, Paul E.. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Nathan, Richard P. 1983. The Administrative Presidency. New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Pacelle, Richard L. Jr. 2003. Between Law and Politics: The Solicitor General and the Structuring of Race, Gender, and Reproductive Rights Litigation. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, Leo. 1967. Church, State, and Freedom. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2004. Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powe, Lucas A. 2009. The Supreme Court and the American Elite, 1789–2008. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1982a. “Message to Congress Transmitting Proposed Legislation on a Constitutional Amendment.” The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Archives http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/51782b.htm (Accessed on February 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1982b. “Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session during an Administration Briefing in Chicago, Illinois, for Editors from the Midwest Region.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=42503&st=&st1= (Accessed on April 4, 2010).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1984a. “Remarks at a White House Briefing for the National Alliance of Senior Citizens.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39577&st=&st1= (Accessed on March 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1984b. “Remarks at a White House Luncheon for Elected Republican Women Officials.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39585&st=&st1= (Accessed on March 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1984c. “Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Columbus, Ohio.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39602&st=&st1= (Accessed on March 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1984d. “Statement on Senate Action on the Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Prayer in Schools.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=39665&st=&st1= (Accessed on March 2, 2009).Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1985. “Remarks During a White House Briefing For United States Attorneys.” The American Presidency Project http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=37941&st=&st1= (Accessed on 4 March 4, 2009).Google Scholar
Salokar, Rebecca Mae. 1992. The Solicitor General: The Politics of Law. Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Schwed, Paula. 1984. “Congress renews debate over religion in school.” United Press International, March 28.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffery A., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 2002. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sheingate, Adam D. 2003. “Political Entrepreneurship, Institutional Change, and American Political Development.” Studies in American Political Development 17:185–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skowronek, Stephen. 1997. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to Bill Clinton. Cambridge, UK: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Stuart Jr., 1986. “Has Reagan Got the Court He Wants?” New York Times, June 22.Google Scholar
Taylor, Stuart Jr., 1984. “School Prayer Bill: A Trojan Horse?” New York Times, July 27.Google Scholar
Teles, Steven M. 2009. “Transformative Bureaucracy: Reagan's Lawyers and the Dynamics of Political Investment.” Studies in American Political Development 23:61–83.Google Scholar
Teles, Steven M. 2008. The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tulis, Jeffrey. 1987. The Rhetorical Presidency. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Weinraub, Bernard. 1985. “Reagan Says We'll Use Vacancies to Discourage Judicial Activism,” New York Times, October 22.Google Scholar
Weisman, Steven R. 1984. “Reagan Telling of his School Life to Prod Senators on Prayer Move.” New York Times, March 17.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde, and Larson, Carin. 2006. Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Yalof, David Alistar. 2001. Pursuit of Justices: Presidential Politics and the Selection of Supreme Court Nominees. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar