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Moment of Silence

Constitutional Transparency and Judicial Control

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International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper looks at the establishment of religion clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, and cases, e.g. Brown v. Gilmore, followed by Croft v. Perry and Sherman v. Koch, cases that relate to the concept of the “moment of silence” in educational institutions in which it was claimed that such events constitute a breach of the establishment clause. Courts have been inconsistent in their decision-making, which may indicate a lack of transparency not only in the interpretation of the relevant phrase in the Constitution but also in the judicial interpretation of the “three-pronged test” with regard to “excessive entanglement” as laid out in Lemon v. Kurtzman of 1971. The paper discusses the “moment of silence” within the framework of a model of silence in which this type of silence would be labeled as either textual or situational silence.

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Notes

  1. All the italicized phrases are mine (DK).

  2. The immediate sources of this brief discussion of the pledge and of the public display of the Ten Commandments are [15, 18]. These articles have a fuller bibliography to guide interested readers.

  3. The Madison and Jefferson quotations are found in [9, p. 116].

  4. http://www.religioustolerance.org/ps_pra6.htm (accessed Jan 26, 2010).

  5. The reference to “sham secular purpose” relates to what Justice O’Connor spoke of in her opinion in Wallace v. Jaffree ([31] see below 2.1.1).

  6. http://www.skepdic.com/moment.html (accessed Jan. 26 2010).

  7. The final quotation is from [32, p. 674].

  8. For example, http://www.archive.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/10/31/65847 (accessed March 3, 2010).

  9. See [2: Prologue], for a brief semiotic discourse on silence in the library.

  10. Par. 2717 of the Cathecism. http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p4s1c3a1.htm; http://www.catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/ Mass.htm (both accessed Jan. 19, 2010).

  11. My thanks to Vijay Bhatia for pointing out the possibility of private prayer in Hinduism.

  12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2DTKif_grs (accessed Jan. 24, 2010).

  13. There is a clip on YouTube of the present pope, Benedict XVI, singing the Lord’s Prayer in 1 minute 40 seconds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IOOz1Z2OE8 (accessed Jan. 24, 2010).

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List of Cases

  1. Bown v. Gwinnett County School District 112 F.3d 1464 11th Cir. (1997).

  2. Brown v. Gilmore 258 F.3d 265 4th Cir. (2001).

  3. Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993).

  4. Croft v. Perry 3:06-CV-434-M; appeal before the US Court of Appeal Fifth Circuit (08-10092).

  5. Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches School District, 508 U.S. 384 (1993).

  6. Lemon v. Kurtzman 403 U.S. 602 (1971).

  7. Newdow v. Elk Grove Unified School District 542 US (2004).

  8. Sherman v. Koch 214, 540 F. Supp.2d 985 (N.D. Ill. 2008).

  9. Wallace v. Jaffree 472 U.S. 38 (1985).

  10. Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York 397 U.S. 664 (1970).

  11. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette 319 U.S. 624 (1943).

  12. Witters v. Wash. Dept. of Services for Blind, 474 U.S. 481 (1986).

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  1. Department of English Language and Literature, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Dennis Kurzon

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  1. Dennis Kurzon
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Correspondence to Dennis Kurzon.

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Kurzon, D. Moment of Silence. Int J Semiot Law 24, 195–209 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11196-010-9205-6

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