Despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, some areas of the country still start every school day, sporting event, civic meeting, or court day with a prayer. Organized prayers are especially prevalent in the South, where the general population is more supportive of public prayer.

In 1993, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Roy S. Moore, a circuit court judge in Etowah County, Alabama, to stop him from opening his court sessions with a prayer and to force him to remove a plaque of the Ten Commandments from its prominent display in his courtroom. The state-sponsored prayers and religious display violated the separation of church and state, the ACLU argued. Another district court judge agreed in February 1997, ruling that the Ten Commandments plaque was an attempt by Moore to promote religion and therefore was unconstitutional. He stayed his decision, however, pending...