*Engle+v.+Vitale

2/2

Date**:** Argued - Warren Court House April 3, 1962 Decided - Warren Court House June 25, 1962 1/1
 * Engel v. Vitale**


 * Summary:** North-Eastern America is a region with areas greatly influenced by English (primarily New England) THE LANGUAGE OR THE COUNTRY? As with the state of New York, it is here that a group of parents took to court a complaint about the daily morning prayer at their children's public school. The New York State Board of Regents had granted schools permission to set time aside at the begining of the school day and lead the students in the prayer INSERT COMMA "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers, and our country". Some students complained about this even though the prayer was optional. The parents of the ten students brought a suit to the state court of New York in an attempt to have the prayer banned. Both the state court and the New York Court of Appeals allowed the prayer to be recited, because of the direct relation to the Establishment Clause the case was then heard by the Supreme Court. 5/5 GOOD


 * Legal Issue:** NOT A COMPLETE SENTENCE Whether it was an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause for a public school to ask students to recite a prayer at the start of every school day, it was argued that the prayer in question was composed by governmental officials as a part of a governmental program to further religious beliefs. WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION WOULD FIND THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE? WHAT DOES IT SAY? 4/5

Black stated that governmentally created prayer is much like the English Creation of the Book of Common Prayer. This leads to the exact reason why colonists came to America; COLON OR HYPHEN, NOT SEMI-COLON to escape the overpowering government's influence on organized religion. 4.5/5
 * RULING Discussion:** On June 25, 1962 the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 1 that it was unconstitutional for a government agency, which includes public schools, to require students to recite prayers, even if optional. Supporting the majority opinion, Justice Black quoted heavily from Thomas Jefferson, as well as emphasizing on James Madison’s “Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments.” USE ITALICS FOR TITLES

"//...The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion." 5/5//
 * Significance:** This case was the start of many in the years to come that furthered the separation of state and church. Many religious activities being sponsored by the government were exposed and also declared unconstitutional in violation of the Establishment Cause. However, the idea of separating church and state is obviously not supported by all. One example comes from evangelist Billy Graham who strongly apposes the separation of church/state even now as shown by one of his statements;

NO BIBLIOGRAPHY 0/2 OVERALL YOU DID A NICE JOB WITH THIS AND YOU WOULD HAVE HAD AN "A" IF YOU HAD INCLUDED A BIBLIOGRAPHY

22/25 = 88% (B)

US Supreme Court Center Religious Freedom Library of Virginia on Engel v. Vitale [|http://www.infoplease.com/us/supreme-court/cases/ar10.html]