Engel v. Vitale

In 1951 the New York State Board of Regents composed a short prayer and recommended that public schools begin each day with it. "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." Students could remain silent or leave the room. In 1958 the school board in New Hyde Park on Long Island adopted it, and the parents of ten students, Jewish, Unitarian, and nonbelieving families among them, sued.

On June 25, 1962, the Court ruled six to one that the practice violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Two justices did not take part. Justice Hugo Black wrote that it is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite. That the prayer was denominationally neutral and voluntary did not save it, because the power and prestige of the state stood behind it.

Justice Potter Stewart, the lone dissenter, said the Court had misapplied a great constitutional principle and that letting children who wished to pray do so did not establish a state church. The public reaction was furious. Members of Congress introduced dozens of constitutional amendments to restore school prayer, and one congressman said the Court had put the Negroes in the schools and now had driven God out.

A year later, in Abington School District v. Schempp, the Court struck down devotional Bible reading in public schools. Neither ruling barred students from praying on their own or schools from teaching about religion. The decisions became a rallying point for the religious conservatism that grew into a political force in the 1970s, and school prayer remains contested, with the Court in 2022 upholding a public school coach's right to pray on the field after games.