On Thursday, May 30th, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman issued an order ending a mandated "moment of silence" in public schools around Illinois. The "Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act", passed by the Illinois general assembly over a veto by Governor Rod Blagovich, went into effect last October. According to the Chicago Tribune:

The preliminary injunction issued by Gettleman in March had applied not only to District 214 but to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Attorneys said that could be interpreted to mean that moments of silence already were barred statewide.

But the state board had maintained it had no authority to enforce such an injunction, leaving it unclear as to how the measure applied.

Attorneys said that under Gettleman's latest order anyone with legal standing could ask the court to hold a school district in contempt if it insisted on going forward with moments of silence. Many school administrators already had said the law is too ill-defined to enforce.

The ACLU of Illinois are amici in the case filed by the Sherman family of Buffalo Grove, against their local public high school and the Illinois Superintendent of Education, challenging the Illinois state statute mandating a moment of silence as "an opportunity for silent prayer or for silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day" before each school day begins. The Illinois legislature, in adopting the provision, compared the public school "moment of silence" to legislative prayer, indicating a legislative intent that the new law to promote public school prayer.

Update: Further coverage of the case:
Daily Herald "Judge bans moment of silence in all public schools":

Adam Schwartz, a senior staff lawyer with the ACLU, said there are two main issues before the court, the substantive issue of whether the law is constitutional, and the procedural issue of whether the lawsuit, which was filed against just District 214, where Sherman attends school, would be restricted to just the district or expanded to schools statewide.

Weeks ago, Gettleman ruled the lawsuit would be applied to all schools, and debated whether to extend the preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement to them as well. Before acting, he gave schools throughout the state several weeks to weigh in before he ruled Thursday.

"Not one school district" stepped forward to defend the law, noted Schwartz, whose group opposes the law.