The moment of silence issue is actually an Establishment Clause issue, not a Free Exercise Clause issue. In Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Supreme Court established a three-pronged test to test the constitutionality of laws regarding the Establishment Clause. The statute must have a secular purpose, its primary effect must neither enhance nor inhibit religion, nor must it create “excessive government entanglement” with religion. In Wallace v. Jaffree, the case where the moment of silence was declared unconstitutional, the bill’s sponsor Senator Donald Holmes testified that the legislation was an “effort to return voluntary prayer” to public schools. Sentaor Holmes later testified he had “no other purpose in mind.” Thus, the court concluded the statute had no secular purpose and found the Alabama statute in violation of the First Amendment. I believe future moment of silence laws would hold up under court scrutiny if they contained language explicitly describing the secular purpose.
What this secular purpose would be I don’t know however. I agree with the poster who said that parents should teach kids about religion, not schools. Kids can pray to themselves whenever they want; they don’t need a mandatory minute to do so in the beginning of the school day. This is the free exercise issue. A law that prohibited silent prayer to oneself by the person’s own volition would never pass the constitutional muster.
-Clay