COURT CASE: Engel v. Vitale

background

• New York state’s Board of Regents wrote a voluntary nondenominational prayer that would be recited by students at the beginning of each school day

• Part of the prayer reads… “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country,”

• The law allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found it objectionable.

• A parent sued on behalf of his child, saying that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment

• The school board president, William Vitale v. Parent  Steven Engel

jurisdictions

original jurisdiction

• first heard by a New York court

• Petitioners filed a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court

• Engel was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and briefs were filed on their behalf by many committees, while the governments of over 20 states called on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the prayer.

supreme court ruling

• Holding: Supported Engle 6-1

• The majority held that school-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

• Even though the provision allowed students to absent themselves from saying prayer did not make the law constitutional because the main purpose of the First Amendment was to prevent government interference with religion.

• The majority recognized that religion is very important to a big part of the American population, but it still is not appropriate for the government to push any particular belief system.

• Dissent

  • Justice Stewart argued in his dissent that the Establishment Clause was only meant to prohibit the establishment of a state-sponsored church, and not prohibit all types of government involvement with religion.

  • He thought that the nondenominational nature of the prayer and the way it was written  removed constitutional issues.

  • He could not understand “how an ‘official religion’ is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our Nation.”

• The Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for a public school to sponsor religion. It violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, freedom of religion.

companion case

Abington School District v. Schempp (1963)

• Found that school-sponsored Bible reading before class is unconstitutional.

• A Pennsylvania law required that each school day starts with the Pledge of Allegiance and a reading from the Bible. The law let the students excuse  themselves from this activity if they found it dissagrable to their beliefs.

• The Court held that school-sponsored Bible reading constituted government endorsement of a particular religion, and thus violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

• Holding was 8-1