mple of this would be a woman named Madelyn Murray OHair. In late 1959, Madelyn Murray (O'Hair) entered a son in the public schools of Baltimore, Maryland, only to discover that he would be forced to participate in Bible reading and unison prayers. The only "relief" that the public school system would offer to an atheist child was that he could sit in the hallway while his peers prayed. She therefore began the legal proceedings which would culminate in the United States Supreme Court decision on school prayer in Murray v. Curlett. While the case worked its way to the Supreme Court over a four-year span, the Murray family suffered abuse both petty and profound, physical and psychological. Yet there was one last act of pettiness committed by the Supreme Court of the United States itself. The Murray v. Curlett case was logged as No. 119 and its arguments were heard before the Court on February 27, 1963. A second case regarding school prayers in Pennsylvania, Abington Township v. Schempp, was later accepted for review by the Court and logged as No. 142. Its arguments were heard after the arguments in Murray. The cases were, however, decided together. Traditionally, when cases are joined by the Supreme Court, the case accepted and heard first is the case for which the decision is named. But this decision is noted in law books as Abington v. Schempp. Why? The plaintiffs in Murray v. Curlett were the most notorious Atheists in the nation. The plaintiffs in the Pennsylvania case of Abington were Unitarians who described themselves as regularly attending "religious services." The Atheists were to be deprived, in legal history, of any recognition. American Atheists, an organization started by Madelyn Murray OHair, grew out of the famous U.S. Supreme Court case Murray v. Curlett which helped to end -- at least in theory -- the practice of bible and prayer recitation in the public schools. Since then, that legal case and the woman behind it - Madel...
