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I) Name of Case/Date of Decision The name of my court case is Engel v. Vitale, and the Court's decision on this c ase was delivered on June 25, 1962. II) Summary of Facts In New York, the Board of Regents (an official government board made to oversee public schools) made mandatory for a prayer, referred to as the "Regents' Prayer ," to be recited at the beginning of every school day. In response to this acti on, a group of ten parents (of whom included Steven Engel) in School District 9 in Hyde Park, New York sued the New York public school district (whose president was William Vitale). The parents claimed that praying to an "Almighty God" was a violation of their religious beliefs. The case was taken to both the New Yor k Supreme Court (which acted as a a trial court), and the court upheld the Board of Regents' prayer. This case was then taken to the New York Court of Appeals, and this court, by a vote of 5-2, too upheld the prayer as well as the previous court's ruling as long as accomodations" (such as arriving to school a few minu tes late, being silent during the recital of the prayer, leaving the room during the prayer, having separate opening sessions for classes) be made for those stu dents who do not wish to recite the prayer. The prayer in question was the foll owing: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country. III) Discovery of Legal Issues Involved in Case The plantiffs in the case argued that instituting such a prayer in schools viola tes the Establishment Clause (which was added to the Constitution solely to prev ent the government from establishing a national religion) set forth in the First Amendment which states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establish ment of religion" and was therefore unconstitutional. Although this quote is pu lled from the Bill of Rights, it also applies to the state of New York in this c ase due to incorporation (where the Bill of Rights also applies to states as wel l as the federal government). Although the prayer was non-denominational, it cl early had religious ties and was encouraging religion on the state's part, an ac tion which was also considered unconstitutional. Becuase the church and state m ust be divided in the US, the plantiffs claimed that the prayer should have been banned. On the other hand, the defendents believed that the First Amendment supported th e prayer. In addition to a section prohibing the establishment of any religion on the government's part, the First Amendment also includes a portion that reads "Congress shall make no law.. prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].." T he Board of Regents believed that not allowing the school to conduct its prayer every morning was in violation of the First Amendment and would be an intrusion on the federal government's part into State affairs. IV) Decision of the Court Of the nine justices, Justice Felix Frankfurter had a celebral stroke and Justic e Bryon White did not take part in the case. As a result, neither of the two ju stices had a vote in the decision of the Court. Of the seven remaining justices

, six voted against and one voted in favor of the recitation of the prayer, effe ctively reversing the decisions of both the New York Supreme Court and New York Court of Appeals. The Court ruled that the having classes recite the Board of R egents' prayer was unconstitutional because the government was endorsing a relig ion, which is a violation of the Establishment Clause. V) Explanation of the Justices' Opinion/Reasoning of the Court Reasoning by Majority Justice Hugo Black wrote the opinion of the Court, and Justice William Douglas w rote a concurrence. Justice Hugo Black explained how having students recite the prayer is in fact in violation of the Establishment Clause. Black alluded to the colonists' departu re from England to seek religious freedom because of a previously established re ligion on the government's part in the following quote: "It is a matter of histo ry that this very practice of establishing governmentally composed prayers for r eligious services was one of the reasons which caused many of our early colonist s to leave England and seek religious freedom in America." Black also goes on t o emphasize the need for a clear divison of the church and State and says that " Under that Amendment's prohibition against governmental establishment of religio n.. government in this country, be it state or federal, is without power to pres cribe by law any particular form of prayer which is to be used as an official pr ayer in carrying on any program of governmentally sponsored religious activity." Black refutes the defendents' argument of how the prayer is not in violation o f the Establishment Clause by stating that just because the prayer is non-denomi national and students have the option to not recite the prayer, the prayer is no t "free it from the limitations of the Establishment Clause.. the purposes under lying the Establishment Clause go much further than that. Its first and most imm ediate purpose rested on the belief that a union of government and religion tend s to destroy government and to degrade religion. The history of governmentally e stablished religion, both in England and in this country, showed that whenever g overnment had allied itself with one particular form of religion, the inevitable result had been that it had incurred the hatred, disrespect and even contempt o f those who held contrary beliefs." In this excerpt, Black explains how associa ting a religion with government tends to destroy itself and induces the hatred o f those who are not in accordance of the religion. To finish his opinion, Black declares that this ruling (or any similar rulings which prohibit law from respe cting a religion) are not unconstitutional, and that it is best to leave religio n to those who want it. In his concurrence, William Douglas mainly focused on and recognized the need fo r the separation of the church and State. Douglas questions "whether New York o versteps the bounds when it finances a religious exercise" and says "[y]et once government finances a religious exercise, it inserts a divisive influence into o ur communities." Towards the end of his concurrence, Douglas quotes Justice Rut ledge who said the following regarding religion: The great condition of religious liberty is that it be maintained free from sust enance, as also from other interferences, by the state. For when it comes to res t upon that secular foundation, it vanishes with the resting. Id., Par. 7, 8. Pu blic money devoted to payment of religious costs, educational or other, brings t he quest for more. It brings too the struggle of sect against sect for the large r share or for any.. It is the very thing Jefferson and Madison experienced and sought to guard against.. The end of such strife cannot be other than to destroy the cherished liberty." In the previous quote, Justice Rutledge is warning against the incorporation of religion into government and recognizes how, together, it can quicky cause the d estruction of an society. Reasoning by Minority Justice Potter Stewart wrote his dissent with the Court's ruling and asserted th at the Court "misapplied a great constitutional principle" by saying that an off icial religion is established by reciting a prayer. Stewart even believed that

denying the children the wish to recite a prayer was keeping them from sharing i n the "spiritual heritage of our Nation." He then continued to mention all the allusions to God in places such as the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, th e beginning session of each day in the Court, the opening sessions of both the H ouse of Representatives as well as the Senate, and numerous other examples. To finish his dissent, Stewart concluded that he firmly believed that in all of his examples he had just listed of allusions to God in government, none of them est ablished an official religion of any sort. VI) Analysis of the Impact, Meaning, or Effect of the Court's decision on Societ y As a result of the ruling made in Engel vs Vitale, school prayers in any form we re from now considered unconstitutional because they promoted a religious belief (a clear violation of the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment). Engel vs Vitale also became the basis for many decisions made by the Supreme Court in various cases that involved school prayer. For example, the Court declared Bibl e reading in Pennsylvania unconstitutional in Abington School District v. Schemp p as this action too violated the Establishment Clause. Numerous other cases th at involved any form of prayer in school were constantly taken to the Supreme Co urt and were considered in violation of the First Amendment. A few more example s of such cases include, but are not limited to, Wallace v. Jaffree, Lee v. Weis man, and Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe. Although the decision mad e by the Supreme Court regarding Engel vs Vitale was unpopular at the time, the ruling held VIII) Bibliography http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/court/enge_v_vita.html http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar10.html http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Engel+v.+Vitale http://www.law.cornell.edu http://blogs.dickinson.edu/hist-404pinsker/2010/11/17/engel-v-vitale-1962/

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