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Supreme Court Case Research Paper

859 Words4 Pages

Ana Garcia
AP Government
Aby
Period 4
Supreme Court Case Paper
As Arden Specter, once put it “The First Amendment freedom of religion is as important today as when the Bill of Rights was first written.” (Specter) One of the most important and most brought up clauses in the Supreme Court case, is the FIrst Amendment, it holds the most important value of the United States, freedom. The ruling in Engel v Vitale forever changed the way the establishment clause of the First Amendment was interpreted. It solidified the right to keep religion completely separate from schools and the public. And from then on, protected students writes to not have a religion in school. In the late 1940s, post World War 2 United States found itself in a shaky state. …show more content…

In the year 1951 under president Truman, New York’s board of education approved a 22 word prayer to be recited every day in the public schools of New York, the prayer read “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.” (Engel) The prayer was created by the State Board of Regents, but quickly stirred up a lot of controversy as many parents felt their children’s rights were being violated. The separation of church and state is protected by the First Amendment (freedom of religion) that was made lawful to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment and having this prayer that was sponsored by the state of New York, every morning seemed to be a direct violation of that right. Although as stated before, this case wasn’t as clear cut because much of the public at the time supported encouraging religion because of the strong anti communist beliefs that many Americans …show more content…

The defendants stated that the prayer didn’t actually establish an official religion and therefore did not infringe on anyone’s religious rights. They also highlighted that the government makes other references to religion, that aren’t prosecuted as unconstitutional and therefor this prayer should be allowed too.
The decision was made by the Warren court in June of 1962. They ruled 6-1 in favor of Engel, stating that the prayer did indeed violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment and that having a prayer sponsored by the school was indeed

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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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(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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At first, Engel’s case was refused by Justice Bernard S. Meyer because he concluded that school prayer did not interfere with the public’s rights under the First Amendment. Later with the time, Engel did not give up on the case and took it to the Supreme Court instead of the New York Court of Appeals where it was reviewed for the second time. Finally, on June 25, 1962, the final decision was given and it declared the law unconstitutional (“Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale” 1). The opinion of the court was 6-1 in were six of them were concurrence and one of them dissented (Skelton 1). The author of the people who were concurrence was William Orville Douglas.

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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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Taking place in 1962, Engel v. Vitale was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that raised the issue of school-sponsored prayer in public schools. Steven Engel, a New York parent, along with a group of other parents, was completely against any sort of prayer, whether voluntary or not, in public schools. Engel, a person of Jewish faith, and his group were supported by various Jewish organizations in their fight against the New Hyde Park school board. William Vitale, the president of this school board, was supported by twenty-two states through an amicus curiae brief. The case spurred from Vitale and other parents’ concerns with the fact that every day, after reciting the pledge of allegiance, students of New York State schools were given the option to recite a prayer,

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