Prayer in school is often considered as unconstitutional, however in the views of many Christians, students should be able to practice their religion. In 1962 a Supreme Court case was ruled debating whether or not students were able to participate in school prayer. The leading cause to this controversy was the U.S Supreme Court banning the school-sponsored prayer in 1962 stating that it violated the First Amendment. Students and faculty were then prohibited to lead in prayer while in school. The ruling in the courtroom was easily outnumbered being 8 to 1, meaning 8 individuals believed school-sponsored prayer violated the First Amendment and 1 did not. “The majority, via Justice Black, held that school-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The majority stated that the provision allowing students to absent themselves from this activity did not make the law constitutional because the purpose of the First Amendment was to prevent government interference with religion. The majority noted that religion is very important to a vast majority of the American people” ("Facts"). After the court case, the …show more content…
Vitale court case were opinionated including states such as Alabama, North Dakota and Montana. As Alabama puts it, "From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God" [a vaguely Christian prayer is included in the statutory language]” (“Details”). In comparison to the law in North Dakota, "A student may voluntarily pray aloud or participate in religious speech at any time before, during, or after the school day to the same extent a student may voluntarily speak or participate in secular speech." [students may not "pray aloud," according to federal law]”