Engel vs. Vitale (1962)
Storyboard Text
- Court Case
- Engel vs. Vitale1962
- Issue
- Plaintiff's Argument
- "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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