Supreme court cases
Lluvia, Shye, and Emilee
Engle v. Vitale (1962)
The E v. V Supreme Court case occurred because of the children’s 1st amendment right being violated. The father of two children, Steven Engle, in New Hyde Park schools objected, being forced to pray at school was affecting the First Amendment. He filed a lawsuit against William Vitale, the head of the school board. The effect of this court case in America that voluntary prayer in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition of a state establishment of religion.
The Brown v. Board of Education Decision of (1954)
The Brown v. Board of Education decision served to turn the nation into another direction. The case began in 1951 when Oliver Brown, a Topeka, Kansas African American, sued the Topeka Board of Education when his third grade daughter was denied admission to her neighborhood school because of the color of her skin. The case was debated for nearly three years and the decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1954. Essentially, the Brown decision ruled that segregated schools or separate educational facilities cannot be equal. The Supreme Court confirmed Brown’s argument that segregated schools insured that African Americans would have an inferior education that would handicap their ability to function in American society, and ordered that each state end segregated public schools “with all deliberate speed.”
Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)
This case involved a dispute over Alabama statutes that by stages allowed voluntary prayer lead by public school teachers. The District Court found nothing wrong with the first statute that called for a one minute period of silence for meditation in all public schools. It then found the second and third statutes unconstitutional. These statutes sanctioned voluntary prayer and permitted teachers to lead willing students in a prescribed prayer to Almighty God…the Creator and Supreme Judge of the world. The Court of Appeals affirmed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari. Wallace v. Jaffree was one of numerous post-World War II decisions that aroused the ire of many Alabamians. Conservative Alabama Christians (mostly white) viewed Wallace v. Jaffree as an affront to states' rights and, most importantly to them, a rejection of God and Christian morality, even though the 1978 moment-of-silence law remained intact. Wallace v. Jaffree was among several cases that played an influential role in the rise of the modern Christian Right throughout the country and especially in the "Heart of Dixie."