The Supreme Court made their position clearer in Capitol Square Review & Advisory Bd. v. Pinette, 515 U.S. 753, 760 (1995) when they wrote: "...private religious speech, far from being a First Amendment orphan, is as fully protected under the Free Speech Clause as secular private expression." The key word in this statement is private.
Further, the Court supported exercise of First Amendment rights in public schools in their decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), "First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."
Religion and religious teaching was common in public schools until the second half of the 20th century, when people began to challenge the practice of indoctrinating all students, regardless of their beliefs, into the school-sanctioned version of Christianity. Because not all Christians hold the same beliefs; not all people of faith are Christian; and not everyone believes in God or in organized religion, enforced religious teaching or prayer is considered coercion and a violation of those people's right to the free exercise of their religion (or lack thereof) without fear of persecution.
The Supreme Court also reconsidered the First Amendment Establishment Clause, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," in light of the fact that the Constitution was deliberately constructed as a secular document, and decided the Framers did not intend for the government to involve itself in promoting any form of religion. If the state and federal government provide funding to public schools, and the schools engage in organized prayer, the school is promoting the establishment of religion as is, by extension, any body providing funding.
Note that this rule only applies to public schools, not to schools chartered and supported by religious organizations.
Amendment I
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
The Founding Fathers
Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, a Founding Father, and third President of the United States, expressed the Framers' intent in the First Amendment in the following quotes:
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom:
"...no citizen shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever..." and that to "compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of [religious] opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical."
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Baptists of Danbury Church, 1802:
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law 'respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and state."
James Madison, author of the First Amendment:
"[I]t is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. . . . Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?"
