Engel Vs. Vital Case Study

4. Engel v. Vitale In the case, Engel was sueing Vitale over the grounds that there should be no teacher led prayer in public school. My oipinion is that if someone wants to pray, they should be able to.

Religion in the Southern colonies wasn’t as big of a deal like it was in the Middle, and Northern colonies. The main religion in the south was, Anglican. The economy in the south was like no other. The South has warm weather and a good amount of rainfall. The two main crops included: tobacco and rice.

Marsh v. Chambers Saul, 1 Marsh v. Chambers; Use of chaplaincy in the court Comment by Crystal G. DeLong: Court cases are ALWAYS italicized Comment by Crystal G. DeLong: : Zachary Saul Liberty High School AP US Government, 2A The Supreme Court case of Marsh v. Chambers all started as a rather small affair in Nebraska, and quickly became case with far-reaching consequences. Ernest Chambers, the current representative on Nebraska 's 11th district in the Nebraska State Senate, argued in 1983, that the use of a tax-funded chaplaincy in Nebraska 's court was against the Establishment Clause of the United States Bill of Rights. In the Nebraska Circuit court case, it was ruled that while the use of a chaplain in the court

Since the early 20th Century, prayer in school has been a huge argument, and is still one of the most heated arguments in today’s society. The debate came about in 1948, when the Supreme Court handed down its first decision on the issue of religion in public schools, ruling in McCollum v Board of Education that it is unconstitutional to conduct religious education within public school buildings (Cohen par. 5). Many people stated that principals did not want the non-Christian students to feel uncomfortable, but did they ever think that not praying in schools could make the Christians students uncomfortable? Not letting students pray in school violates the 1st Amendment.

School Dress codes do not allow students to completely express their individuality. Schools want students to be able to think for themselves and create a sense of who they are, but it is not easy when they are forced to abide by rules that take away from from that. It should be a place of expressing ourselves freely in a learning environment without having to worry about what we wear as an interfering issue. The fact that the school system cares more about the student dress code than their education is an issue in itself. Schools should promote dress code individuality because of religious aspects, mental health, and human experience.

In the 1950’s the cold war had begun. The fear of retaliation from communists was at large. Some Americans believed that communists were amongst them plotting. This lead to a dark time in history when American opportunity became limited for many. Most rights were limited, normal life was disrupted, and the most necessary human right may have been taken.

15 Armbands Justice Abe Fortas and Justice Hugo Black are arguing if certain kinds of speech should or should not be prohibited in an educational setting. Justice Abe Fortas is arguing the majority opinion which says that speech should not be prohibited in an educational setting. The Justice says, “Undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right of expression,” (4). This means that just because you think something will cause a disturbance and will be bad, that does not give one the right to ban freedom of expression.

The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The First Amendment has been combined into the Fourteenth Amendment and relates to the states and their divisions. The first provision is called the Establishment Clause and the second is the Free Exercise Clause. This means that there is an assurance of religious freedom that has a double layer to it. Firstly, the Establishment Clause forbids laws demanding that anyone has to accept any belief or the practice of any form of worship.

During the colonial period there were many differences in the 3 main regions of our country (just as there are today). If we begin with the Southern colonies we will find a group of settlers whose lives revolved around agriculture. Poor white settlers worked on rural farms while the wealthier populous owned large plantations with slaves and indentured servants. No public schools were in existence, and unless you were a wealthy white male, there was not much chance of you getting an education at all. Only the wealthy parents could afford tutors for their children, sometimes even putting their money together to get a tutor for a group of children.

Prayer in Public Although prayer in public is traditional, it doesn't abide by the constitution. School prayer has remained a subject in the United States throughout the 20th Century. Engel v. Vitale came around in which school prayer was in a lot of ways forbidden. However, with the passage of the Equal Access Act in 1984, some forms of school prayer were again allowed. The Department of Education now issues a guide to help school administrators crack down on congressional laws and Supreme Court decisions concerning school prayer.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” These words are the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Indicate some important thoughts about the meaning of liberty. Isadore Starr, a leader in the fields of law-related and citizen education, described the important of the First Amendment: “Remove the First Amendment from the United Sates Constitution and you strike out the very means of testing the other rights and of protesting abuses of government.” (Isidore Starr, 1978)

Religion heavily altered and transformed America throughout the New World into the 21st century. Religion affects the way a person believes and behaves, which plays an enormous role in how a person’s life turns out. Religion influenced a politician’s decisions, decided who could hold office and who would be hired. Religion has influenced politics in a positive way. Before religion was heavily involved in politics, politicians made decisions for the betterment of the country, not the people.

The issue in this case was whether school-sponsored nondenominational prayer in public schools violates the Establishment clause of the first amendment (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This case dealt with a New York state law that had required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon God (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This law had also allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found that it was objectionable. There was a parent that sued the school on behalf of their child. Their argument was that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable

Although peaceful resistance against laws created by the government has been recently used more frequently to express political dissent towards a government and is done entirely by civilians of their nation, it has been effective over the decades as political figures such as Martin Luther King Junior has proved. Peaceful resistance has proven effective only when there has been a truly repressive control on those protesting against their government. This truly repressive control must be something worth fighting for in order to make a reform that would improve society. For example, when women fought for their right to be included in suffrage, they succeeded and did so because their belief of the government’s restriction on them was truly something