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Fallout expected after school prayer vote
DANIEL KURTZMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - From the moment it was introduced in Congress last year, the "Religious Freedom Amendment" was seen by its opponents as a thermonuclear device looming over the church-state battlefield. The proposed constitutional amendment would have allowed for prayer in schools, religious displays on public property and taxpayer funding of religious schools.
Last week's defeat of the measure in the House of Representatives may have defused that bomb, but the vote is expected to have a pronounced fallout just the same. While Jewish groups and church-state watchdogs hailed the defeat as a victory for religious liberty, most conceded that the vote portends future battles over issues such as school vouchers.
The vote also could have electoral consequences for lawmakers on both sides of the issue. Religious conservatives have promised to remember the vote, and some Jews have suggested that they, too, might weigh this issue when it comes to backing candidates.
In the House's first vote on a school prayer constitutional amendment since 1971, the "Religious Freedom Amendment" failed June 4 by a vote of 224-203 - 61 short of the two-thirds majority of lawmakers present that was necessary for passage. No Jewish lawmakers, including the two Republicans in the House, voted for the measure.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.), had been advanced as a means of reversing 30 years of court decisions its proponents claimed had distorted and restricted constitutional protections of religious freedom. Jewish groups, together with a broad coalition of religious and civil liberties organizations, the Clinton administration and most Democrats, opposed the so-called Istook amendment as unnecessary and dangerous. They said a wide array of religious activity is already permitted in public schools.
The proposal was strongly backed by the Christian Coalition.
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