 In October 1974, Eastland was one of five senators to sponsor legislation authored by Jesse Helms permitting prayer in public schools and taking the issue away from the Supreme Court which had previously ruled in 1963 that school prayer violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution through the establishment of a religion.In June 1976, Eastland joined a coalition of Democratic politicians who endorsed Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter for the presidency.The "New York Times" assessed Stennis and Eastland as jointly "trying to pull Mississippi out for Mr. Carter" in their first campaign for a national Democrat in decades.