The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Murray v. Curlett, consolidated with Abington v. Schempp, that mandatory Bible reading/prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
On June 17, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Abington School District v. Schempp, which was consolidated with Madalyn Murray's case Murray v. Curlett. The Court ruled 8-1 that state-mandated Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Madalyn Murray (later O'Hair) had filed suit in 1960 on behalf of her son William J. Murray, then a student in the Baltimore public school system, arguing that compulsory prayer violated their rights as atheists. The case made her a national figure — and a deeply polarizing one — as she endured harassment, violence, and public vilification for challenging the deeply entrenched practice of school prayer.
This landmark ruling fundamentally altered the relationship between religion and public education in the United States, cementing the principle that public schools, as government institutions, could not promote or mandate religious practice. It remains one of the most significant Establishment Clause rulings in American constitutional law.
The victory catapulted Murray into a lifelong career as an atheist activist and organizer, though it also made her, in the words of Life magazine, 'the most hated woman in America.' The ruling's legacy persists in ongoing debates over religion in public schools and government institutions.