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Establishment Clause Should Not Be Allowed In School Essay

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Overview- The state of New York required every school to begin the day reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and saying a nondenominational prayer. This law allowed students to not participate in the pray if it went against their belief. One of the student’s parents sued the school for violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The majority claimed that even though this law allowed students to not participating, the purpose of the First Amendment was to separate government with religion. The people believed that since there was a numerous different religion in the school, the school should not promote just one belief. Justice Douglas stood up against any religion being involved in schools. Justice Stewart explained what the Establishment Clause really stood for, which was to prohibit state-sponsored churches.
Constitutional Issue- This case involves the Constitution because it relates to the First Amendment. This student and others believed that prayer in school goes against what the Establishment Clause was created for. The Establishment clause was made to removed influencing religion in the government or vise-versa. However, because of this Clause, not only was religion taken out of the government but completely out of schools today. Today, schools are not allowed to hold a moment of …show more content…

It found that the New York’s law was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment regarding the Establishment Clause. Hugo Black wrote the opinion of the majorities views of this subject, they stated that the practice of reciting this prayer did not follow the Establishment Clause. However, Potter Stewart argued that this act was allowing school students to express the spiritual heritage of our Nation. Although there were many other individuals supporting prayer in schools, Engel won the case and the court found the New York’s law

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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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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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an you imagine yourself having to start your daily school routine with a prayer? This became a serious question to be taken up by the Supreme Court of the US, in November of 1951. Following an increase in in juvenile crime (many believe caused by the Korean War). The New York Board of Regents adopted a prayer to be recited in NY public schools (Dierenfield 67). The prayer was established because “...the regents believed that such a program would ensure that school children would acquire ‘respect for lawful authority and obedience to law’ ”

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Vitale. The case of Engel v. Vitale was brought up by a group of families from New Hyde park, New York, they were up against the voluntary prayer written by the state board to God, in other words, the study board wrote a Christian prayer up for public students who wants it. A group of parent under their leader Steven Engel(a jihadist) were not Christians and they believed this prayer contradicted their religion, they argued opening a public school with such prayer violates the clause of the first Amendment and the fourteenth amendment. At the end of this case, the court ruled government- written prayers may not be recited in public schools because it violates the first amendment. However these public school students were given a choice they were not forced to pray this prayer, moreover, this particular prayer was not sponsored by taxpayer’s money.

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The issue in this case was whether school-sponsored nondenominational prayer in public schools violates the Establishment clause of the first amendment (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This case dealt with a New York state law that had required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon God (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This law had also allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found that it was objectionable. There was a parent that sued the school on behalf of their child. Their argument was that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable

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In 1962, the Supreme Court case “Engle v. Vitale” ruled that school prayer could no longer be performed in public classrooms because it was offensive to some families’ religious beliefs. The arguments revolved around the different interpretations and understandings of the 1st Amendment that stated, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” Those opposed to school prayer claimed that it violated their personal/religious beliefs; because their children were forced to pray to a God they did not believe existed. They thought that religious activities should be separate from government policies and remain a “function to the people themselves.” On the other hand, those supporting

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Introduction and Thesis Throughout American history, there has been much controversy concerning the Establishment Clause written in the First Amendment. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion”. Therefore the government is not allowed to establish an official religion for the nation and is not allowed to favor one religious belief over another one.

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Religion has always played a large role in society, grounding a lot of legal frameworks through religious values. One crucial moment that underlines religion and law occurred during the Supreme Court case Engel v. Vitale. The decision for the case was made in 1962 after a New York State law required a voluntary prayer to be practiced at the beginning of the school day. A parent sued on behalf of his child, arguing that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (United States Courts). Engel v. Vitale put a lot of pressure on the Supreme Court when recognizing the balance between government and religion.

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The federal government put this in place to keep the government from establishing a national religion and to stop it interfering with state religious issues by stating in the establishment clause, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Since the schools reciting prayer in the morning were public schools run by the government, they were breaking the First Amendment. This led Steven Engel, along with other parents, suing the school for denying their First Amendment

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The families believed, even though the students could be individually excused from the recitation, that the difficulty of being granted permission to be excused from the room during the regents’ prayer made the recitation feel extremely obligatory. Furthermore, they said the prayer certainly violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the

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It is the clear understanding of the First Amendment for over a century. The Bill of Rights guarantees the separation of church and state. It is prohibited to express the religious beliefs in all public institutions. However, it seems to be powerless to ban God in public schools, since local governments and not congress run public schools. The first big case that undermined the balance between the church and state.

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167, 42 L.Ed.2d 134 (1974). which evaluated a similar Missouri provision in determining if the State could refuse to provide bussing services for parochial schools, the Court held that maintaining a wall between Church and State is a legitimate State interest sufficient to overcome an equal protection and free of religion argument. The State’s provision is constitutional under the Freedom of Religion Clause of the 1st Amendment because it does not discriminate between religious groups, since no group is eligible. The State is allowed to deny religious organizations funding from secular programs and benefits that are not widely and generally available to the public at large. The State only awarded 14 grants to carefully selected organizations, and the State had a rational basis for using religious

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The separation of church and state has been an issue longer than America has been a country. Today many people believe that having the phrase ‘Under God’ in our pledge of allegiance is a violation of the first amendment and a mishmash of church and state; however, many people have proven this to be inaccurate. The Pledge as a whole has a secular purpose because it is primarily a patriotic observance, not a religious one. In August 1892, Francis Bellamy, a CHRISTIAN socialist, wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance without any mention of God or Christianity, in hopes of it being recited by citizens in any country.

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The enforced observance of God in the Pledge of Allegiance is an enforcement of religion and to reenact an appeal of what is to be considered truthful. There is a tendency through some Americans stating how they have the right to freedom of religion, which is true, but they tend to forget that there are other people in this world than justness of a world of one god. The first amendment is “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech. . .” Which explicitly states that Congress is not allowed to do something mandatory, that is, towards the statement of any religion or none of. Yet, it was the Congress who input the words “under god” into the Pledge, but they still do not stop to consider the message to the children, which is to force the child to at least acknowledge that there is a god.

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Schools have a responsibility to provide a safe and orderly environment for learning, but they must also respect the rights of students to express themselves and engage in political and social activism. The controversies surrounding students’ First Amendment rights have been apparent in our world for a long time, and the controversies are only growing with the growth of technology. There have been and still are many questions surrounding what the students are allowed to do and not allowed to do under their first amendment rights and that is what we are going to dive deeper into through the perspectives of many cases based on students' first amendment rights. There have been many famous court cases over the years in which students have taken school boards to court after they had felt that the school board or administration violated their first amendment rights at the school that they are attending. When it comes to students' first amendments there are many things that

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