All public schools in Illinois have been temporarily banned from starting each day with a moment of silence. That’s after a federal judge’s decision in Chicago Thursday.
The ban used to only apply to one school district in Illinois. Now it applies to all of them. That’s while a lawsuit challenging the state’s moment of silence act moves forward. The act’s chief sponsor, State Senator Kimberly Lightford, says she doesn’t agree with the decision. She says the judge appears to be following his personal beliefs.LIGHTFORD: I wouldn’t inflict my religious beliefs in the institution of making laws or passing judgement as a judge and I don’t think it’s right for him to do such and make it where he’s exercising his power to spread this across the state.
Meantime, plaintiff Rob Sherman is calling the decision a “huge victory.” Sherman says the moment of silence act is equivalent to putting prayer in the public schools.