"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Argued April 3rd, 1962Decided June 25th, 1962
Defendant's Argument
Does a public school requirement that students participate in a nondenominational prayer violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, as it is applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment?
Majority Opinion
In 1959 Steven Engel and a group of parents argued that the prayer their children recited in school violated the 1st amendment establishment clause (applied through 14th amendment)
Dissenting Opinion
"The state is not imposing a religious belief by using this prayer. There was a sufficient separation of Church and State so that the 1st Amendment was not infringed."
School Board President William Vitale (Defendant) argued that because the recitation was voluntary, it did not violate the First Amendment.
Requiring public school students to participate in a religious prayer is unconstitutional.
The Establishment Clause was only meant to prohibit the establishment of a state-sponsored church.
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