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. Jeffrey Darko authored the …show more content…
Colorado Civil Rights Commission” by Michael Eisenstadt explains Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was decided on the narrow ground that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause (Eisenstadt, 2020). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Phillips in a 7-2 decision that created a lot of controversy between the religious community and the LGBTQ+ community. This decision failed to answer a cardinal question of constitutional law, whether or not the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause could undermine nondiscrimination law (Eisenstadt, 2020). This means that the case did not establish whether the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment could affect the anti-discrimination laws negatively. The Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission is still considered discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and has people questioning the balance of religion in society and what is at cost. It is important to relate these Supreme Court Cases to religion having its disadvantages, including discrimination, because a court has the important task of balancing the civil rights among