60 years ago--The U.S. Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, prohibits mandated prayer in public schools

When Americans think of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions that had the effect of removing God from public schools, the name that comes to mind is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists, who filed suit on behalf of her son Bill Murray, who was in a public school system that mandated Bible-reading. Her case, Murray v. Curlett, was folded into Abington School District v. Schempp, in which Edward Schempp, a Unitarian Universalist and a resident of Abington Township, Pennsylvania, filed suit against the Abington School District in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to prohibit the enforcement of a Pennsylvania law that required at least 10 verses of the Bible to be read without comment at the beginning of each public school day. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 8-1 on June 17, 1963 in favour of the plaintiff, concluding that public schools cannot sponsor Bible readings and recitations of the Lord's Prayer under the clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, stating that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

The Court, in Abington School District v. Schempp, upheld its ruling from a year earlier in a related case. On June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Engel v. Vitale, ruled by a 6-1 margin that the state cannot hold prayers in public schools, even if it is not required and not tied to a particular religion. As reported by Justia (bold in original):

Justia Opinion Summary and Annotations

Annotation

Primary Holding

The state cannot hold prayers in public schools, even if it is not required and not tied to a particular religion.

Facts

The state board of regents in New York wrote a voluntary prayer to Almighty God that was intended to open each school day. A group of organizations joined forces in challenging the prayer, including families and institutions dedicated to the Jewish faith. They claimed that this violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, but the New York Court of Appeals rejected their arguments. While nearly half of the state governors in the U.S. contributed to an amicus brief asking the Court to uphold this finding that the prayer was constitutional, several national Jewish organizations submitting opposing briefs seeking its invalidation.

Opinions

Majority

Hugo Lafayette Black (Author)
Earl Warren
William Orville Douglas
Tom C. Clark
John Marshall Harlan II
William Joseph Brennan, Jr.

Relying on historical analysis, Black emphasized the significance of separating church from state and identified a school prayer as a religious activity, no matter its specific wording. As a result, the state of New York had used its power to promote a certain set of religious beliefs by encouraging children to comply with its own. Black was not persuaded that the general wording of the prayer and the fact that the prayer was voluntary were enough to insulate it from the First Amendment. He observed that not every religion recognizes a God, so some are necessarily excluded even with this wording.

Concurrence

William Orville Douglas (Author)

Dissent

Potter Stewart (Author)

Recused

Byron Raymond White (Author)
Felix Frankfurter

Case Commentary

While students theoretically could have opted out of participating in the prayer, the majority and proponents of its decision recognized that children are unlikely to choose not to engage in a teacher-led activity. The outcome might be different if the case had involved an educational institution with adult students.

The Court's general antipathy toward prayer in schools would be extended by later decisions that struck down clergy-led prayers at graduation ceremonies, student-led prayers at football games, and time set aside during the school day for prayer or meditation.

U.S. Supreme Court
Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962)
Engel v. Vitale

No. 468

Argued April 3, 1962

Decided June 25, 1962

370 U.S. 421

Syllabus

Because of the prohibition of the First Amendment against the enactment of any law "respecting an establishment of religion," which is made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, state officials may not compose an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools of the State at the beginning of each school day -- even if the prayer is denominationally neutral and pupils who wish to do so may remain silent or be excused from the room while the prayer is being recited. Pp. 370 U.S. 422-436.

10 N.Y.2d 174, 176 N.E.2d 579, reversed.

Page 370 U.S. 422

In 1951 and again in 1955, the Board of Regents of New York adopted a resolution calling for reading the following nondemoninational prayer in classrooms to begin the school day:

Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country. Amen.

The plaintiffs, residents of North Hempstead, New York, were parents Steven Engel, Monroe Lerner, Lenore Lyons, Dan Lichtenstein and Larry Ross. Mr. Engel, who was Jewish, was named the lead plaintiff because his name came first in alphabetical order. The American Civil Liberties Union (surprise!) aided the plaintiffs, who lost in the Supreme Court of New York (1959); Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division (1960); and Court of Appeals of New York (1961). However, the highest court in the nation reversed the New York rulings. Roman Catholic writer Paul A. Fisher, in his book Behind the Lodge Door (1994, pp. 161-162), argued that the Supreme Court's anti-religious rulings during the post-World War II era came at a time when the Court was dominated by Freemasons. According to Mr. Fisher:

The truth is, prayer and Bible reading were integral to the "Protestant" public school system in the United States until the Supreme Court's Engel decision in 1962 and its Schempp ruling in 1963-a period when Masons dominated the Court by a six-to-three ratio.

The U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp were heavily criticized by Christians and other American at the time, and have been accused of playing a major role in changing the country for the worse, and no longer being "a nation under God." The critics turned out to be right.

Those who like to use the phrase "Judeo-Christian" may be surprised to learn that not only did the plaintiffs have a disproportionate number of Jewish-sounding names, but in appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, they were joined by the American Jewish Committee, the Synagogue Council of America, and the American Ethical Union, each of whom submitted briefs urging the Supreme Court to reverse the New York rulings (which is an example of why this blogger no longer uses the phrase "Judeo-Christian"--Judeo values are not Christian values). While Madalyn Murray O'Hair is still remembered for her role in removing mandated Bible-reading from public schools, the role of Jews in the case that removed mandated prayer from public schools has been airbrushed from history. To quote Sherlock Holmes out of context, "Most singular! Most remarkable!!"