In an opinion authored by Hugo L. Black, the Court held that respondent's decision to use its school system to facilitate recitation of the official prayer violated the Establishment Clause. Specifically, the policy breached the constitutional wall of separation between church and state.

Facts and case summary for Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) School-sponsored prayer in public schools is unconstitutional.

Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools, due to violation of the First Amendment. [1]

Engel v. Vitale, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 25, 1962, that voluntary prayer in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition of a state establishment of religion.

Engel v. Vitale was an important Supreme Court decision policing the boundaries of church and state. There, the New York State Board of Regents authorized public schools to recite a short, voluntary prayer at the beginning of each school day.

2012年6月25日 · Engel v. Vitale: The state cannot hold prayers in public schools, even if it is not required and not tied to a particular religion.

Engel v. Vitale is the 1962 landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down prayer in public schools. The case presented squarely the question of whether a public school could sanction classroom prayers at a time when America was increasingly pluralistic and secular.

2009年1月1日 · In Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

Engel made it clear that all state sponsored religious activities, not just in schools, but through all government, were unconstitutional. From public prayers and bible readings to non-denominational acknowledgement of faith, Engel made it clear government cannot violate the 1st Amendment’s Establishment Clause, even if the activity is optional.

A turning point: the "Regents' Prayer" and Engel v. Vitale. The media and popular culture often erroneously credit atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair with removing school prayer from US public schools, when the case against recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Baltimore schools was decided by the Supreme Court in 1962. A more significant case had ...