MOBILE, Ala. — Senior U.S. District Judge William Bre vard Hand, appointed to the bench by President Nixon in 1971 and later known for his ruling in support of school prayer, died Saturday, one week after he fell and broke his leg, said his clerk, Deborah Farmer. Hand had heart surgery about five years ago, and complications left him weak in his left leg. He was 84.
In 1982, after a local lawyer sued to remove prayer in Alabama’s public schools, Hand ruled in favor of classroom prayer, saying essentially that a federal law striking down the practice didn’t apply to states.
His ruling was eventually overturned on appeal, and a group of local Christians responded by suing to remove from classrooms textbooks that espoused what they called “secular humanism,” a “godless religion.” Hand received that argument favorably.
He ordered 44 textbooks removed from local schools. But that ruling, too, was eventually overturned.
