The court case Santa Fe Independent School District vs. Doe was a court case decided by the supreme court ruled on June 19 2000. This was quite the controversial court case involving religion and the schools sponsoring of student lead prayer. The court found that the school’s policy was biased towards religion and that it violated the first amendment, to be more specific the establishment clause. It all started back in 1995 when students lead prayers before every home varsity football game. Some of the students and parents found this to be offensive. They took the name of Doe as to remain anonymous. They argued the prayer was overly “Christian” and that the school did not have the right to allow the students to lead the prayer.
This case was taken to the District Court. The District Court ruled that they can lead the prayers as long as they aren’t nonsectarian and nonproselytizing. This case then later took up an appeal and it was found that “any student lead prayer would be found unconstitutional. Because it favored Religion over Atheism. The school district, however, found other ways to get around this ruling. During the case, the school created a policy that created a voting system for the prayer problem. The students would have a majority vote for the prayer and they would
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Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, stated "Private voluntary prayer is not only permitted in public schools; it is constitutionally protected." (Civilrights 8)”. You can pray by yourself or with your friends all you want, that is protected under freedom of religion, but the minute the government gets involved and supports the prayer, in this case the Santa Fe School District., that’s when it is