Engel v. Vitale
Case Study Project
Basic Facts:
The Board of Regents for the State of New York authorized a short, voluntary prayer at the start of each school day. This was an attempt to defuse the politically potent issues of religion at the time. The prayer is stated as follows: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers, and our country."
Precedent:
By providing the prayer, New York officially approved religion which therefore made the action of voluntary prayer illegal. By establishing a religion the Supreme Court deemed this action unconstitutional by referring to the First Amendment's "establishment of religion."
History:
This was the first in a series of cases in which the Court used the establishment clause to eliminate religious activities of all sorts. This case is considered a landmark because it set the tone that everyone has the right to freely express their own religious beliefs without one being superior to another.