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Compare And Contrast Edwards Vs Aguillard

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Edwards v. Aguillard
Edwards v. Aguillard is a supreme court case that challenges the legality of the Creationism Law. The creationism law said that you didn’t have to teach evolution,but if you did you also had to teach creationism. The law was ruled unconstitutional in a federal court and then an appeals court. It was then moved to the supreme court, the supreme court ruled in a 7-2 decision that the law broke the establishment clause and therefore was unconstitutional.(Gordon)
The law was first challenged by a parent of student who objected the legality of the Creation Law. The parent said that the law violated the separation of church and state. Don Aguillard was a high school teacher who was one of the challengers. He believed that creationism …show more content…

Aguillard was Lemon v. Kurtzman. In Lemon v. Kurtzman a Pennsylvania law was challenged. The law allowed the state to give some compensation to private school teachers who only teach secular classes. Alton Lemon was a Pennsylvanian instructor who opposed the law and so he challenged it. David Kurtzman was the Superintendent of the department of public instruction in Pennsylvania at the time of the challenge. He was listed as a respondent to the challenge. At first the court case went through a three judge district court where it ruled that the law was constitutional. It was then appealed to the supreme court where they accepted the case. The supreme court ruled in an unanimous 8-0 decision that the law was unconstitutional. …show more content…

§§ 17:286.1-17:286.7 (West 1982), is facially invalid [p581] as violative of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”(Edwards v. Aguillard)
The ruling helped many people by deciding several things at the same time. It helped solidify that the States cannot pass a law requiring the teaching of creationism or other religious text that the main purpose is to restrict the teachings of evolution. It also helped by using the lemon test, which wasn’t decided too long before this case, become a more accepted as a way to determine if a law was unconstitutional. It helped to clarify what a law could and couldn’t do when involving religion and schools.(Dorman)
Sometimes a politician will try to bring their religion into government. This is unconstitutional and should not happen. They swear an oath when they join office to uphold

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The Supreme Court case of Engel v. Vitale’s decision was based on the establishment clause. The case of Engel v. Vitale struck down state organized prayer in school. The prayer had government endorsement and was thus considered unconstitutional. The Supreme Court case of Oregon v. Smith used the free exercise clause the basis of their decision.

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Ogden vs. Gibbons was a controversial court case that was debated in 1824 after Aaron Ogden filed a restraint against Thomas Gibbons. Ogden and Gibbons were former business partners in the steamboat industry and for three years they successfully worked together throughout waterways in New York. Unfortunately Gibbons decided to operate another steamboat that came in conflict with Ogden’s steamboat and this is when Ogden filed a restraint against Gibbons. Ogden’s complaint was that he no longer wanted Gibbons to operate steamboats in New York waters. This was an important court case because the court had to figure out who had the power to control navigation in interstate waterways.

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(2) Background Information As well as the lawsuit filed by Alton Lemon, this incident involved two other cases that fell under the same issue, Earley v. DiCenso and Robinson v. DisCenso. Both conflicts involved a state law passed, through the Non- public Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1968, by the state of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. This act gave the government permission to fund religious based or parochial schools. Although the schools provided textbooks and instructional materials for secular subjects, a Pennsylvania instructor believed that this act violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” Lemon argued that that by providing this money

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Notаbly absent from the opinion, as it was in Plessy, is any citаtion to a Supreme Court cаse that considered whether the prаctice of segregating schools was a violation of the Fourteenth Аmendment. It was an open question for the Court. The Court аdmitted that the precedent to which it cited involved discriminаtion between whites and blacks rаther thаn other rаces. However, the Court found no аppreciable difference here—"the decision is within the discretion of the state in regulating its public schools, and does not conflict with the Fourteenth Аmendment."

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Before this case study, taxpayers funded grade school education, but it was never established that education was a right for Texas Citizens. Ultimately, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that funding individual public school districts by neighborhood property taxes was unequal, encouraging discrimination (MALDEF Lawsuit). The Texas Supreme Court ruled that funding for public school districts would be reformed a new system of funding public school education would be implemented (Acosta, 2010).

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The reasoning behind that decision was that the provision allowing students to absent themselves from that activity did not make that law constitutional. The purpose of the First Amendment was to prevent government interference with religion (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). Justice Douglas concurred with what the court had found. He took a broader view of the Establishment Clause, arguing that any type of public promotion of religion, including giving financial aid to religious schools, violates the establishment clause (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). I would agree with this decision in some ways, but there are some that I do not agree with.

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At the time, certain events were taking place that allowed the rise of religious fundamentalism. Larson says, “These scientific developments helped set the stage in the early 1920s for a massive crusade by fundamentalists against teaching evolution in public schools, which culminated in the 1925 trial of John Scopes. ”13 Developments such as the increase of public schools, new fossil discoveries that strengthened the evolution argument, and the rise of religious fundamentalism all helped strengthen the case of anti-evolution advocates. These anti-evolution movements lead by religious leaders such as William Jennings Bryan argued that the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools since it was the will of the majority, even if freedom of speech was compromised. The ACLU eventually advertised for a teacher to challenge the law that banned evolution.

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The Scopes "Monkey" Trial The Scopes Trial was a monumentally important event in American history Effect on Education Effects on Society And Its Effects On Religion, Society, and Education Some effects were short-term, some were long-term Effects on Religion The major effect this court case had on religion in America, was that it pointed out the blatant refusal by many States (particularly in the South) to follow the guideline of "Separation of Church and State" set by the Founding Fathers. While they believed they were doing what was best, they were infringing upon the rights of everyone who did not hold the same beliefs as them (for example, Scopes' belief that evolution should be allowed to be taught in schools). Another religious repercussion

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Since the Act supports the idea that a supernatural being created the world, it is supporting religion (“Edwards”). The court case document states, “The court found that the Louisiana Legislature's actual intent was ‘to discredit evolution by counterbalancing its teaching at every turn with the teaching of creationism, a religious belief’” (“Edwards”). The state knew that they would be violating the First Amendment and possibly have to go to court, so they purposely made the Biblical beliefs sound more scientific in the event of contrasting them with evolution

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The first major case brought to notice was West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. Before this court decision, it was common for children to be expelled from school for not comply with the pledge. The Board of education wanted the pledge to become a regular part of public schooling and refusing to obey was an Act of insubordination which ended in expulsion. If the child still did not conform, they would be considered unlawfully

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The Scopes Monkey trial was one the biggest and most influential court cases of all time. John Scopes was a public high school teacher in dayton tennessee who was arrested and tried for breaking the butlers law. Passed in 1925 it made teaching evolution in any schools and colleges in the state of Tennessee illegal. This was because evolution challenges the idea of creationism which was the popular religion in the tennessee. this was a huge problem because it was written in the constitution that you must separate church and state.

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On June 25, 1962, a Supreme Court case, Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, was decided. The lawsuit was brought to the United States Supreme Court by parents (of students who attended schools in the Herricks School District) who complained that a nondenominational prayer instituted by the New York Board of Regents in their district was unconstitutional. The parents argued that the prayer, although optional, violated their First Amendment Rights. When the 6-1 (two justices did not vote) decision was made, it was ruled that voluntary prayer in public schools violates the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. One concurring opinion was given, and the single judge that did not vote the same as the rest provided

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Majority of supporters for this case were Christians who viewed evolution as not the right concept and how the idea goes against the hundred years of teachings from the Bible. People believed evolution was a crime and natural selection was misused to demonstrate domination. On the other hand, since the trial did take place during the Roaring Twenties people were embracing aspects of science giving support to Scopes. John Thomas Scopes went against William Jennings Bryant, Bryant wanted to make evolution illegal through his use of national campaign. To go back, the urban society were excited over education involving science and math, overall increasing the education rate from the previous 200,000 students attending to approximately 2 million students, making secondary education become crucial rather than the previous learning

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1972 Words | 8 Pages

This case was extremely important and made is so children of all races could attend the same schools. This decision affected the Criminal Justice system as well as society as a whole and allows people to live they way they do

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The case involved a high school biology teacher named John Scopes, who was charged with violating Tennessee state law by teaching the theory of evolution in his classroom. The trial was a highly publicized event that sparked a national debate about the teaching of evolution and the role of religion in education. The trial attracted widespread attention from the media. The case was prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan, a prominent lawyer, and politician who was a strong advocate for the teaching of creationism in schools. On the side, the defense team was led by Clarence Darrow, a well-known lawyer, and defender of civil liberties.

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