Engel Vs Vitale Court Case Essay

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The Engel V. Vitale court case was a United States landmark court case. This case protested that it is unconstitutional for public schools to create an official school prayer due to conflicting the first amendment. This court case has brought us our right to freedom of religion and also has demolished official state prayer in all public schools today. The Engel V. Vitale court case was argued on April 3rd 1962 and not decided on until June 25th 1962. This issues was brought up by the families of 10 public school students and brought to the attention of Steven l. Engel who then became the case petitioner. The respondent to this case was named William J. Vitale. This court case started with Herricks School District in New York When Steven l. Engel agreed with a couple of parents with students in the district, that were being forced to participate in morning ritual prayer …show more content…
The trial court is the first to hear the case. The trial judge and/or jury review the evidence that is given to them and then they make a decision on it. For this specific court case it first saw the New York Court of Appeals where they declared there was a big enough separation from the church and the state so this case issue was seen as not a violation to the first amendment or a violation of our freedom of religion. Later the Engel V. Vitale court case was taken to the New York Supreme Court (Appellate Division) where they also came to the conclusion that this case was not suggesting any religious beliefs by creating or using any mandatory public school prayers. After this Engel and Butler decided to take it up to the next level, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court officials. This is where the Supreme Court officials finally noticed that obtaining and requiring public school students to recite an official state prayer was unconstitutional due to violating the first amendment and taking away the children’s right to freedom of