Engel v. Vitale (pg. 757)
Engel v. Vitale. Majority of people have never heard of this Supreme Court case. However the impact that this Supreme Court case had was tremendous. This Supreme Court is considered to be one of the most controversial and misunderstood decisions made in the history of the Supreme Court.
The Engel v. Vitale Supreme Court case tackled the issue on whether or not a school’s nondenominational prayer is a violation of the first amendment.
Now the First Amendment states that “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 the people peaceably to assemble, and …show more content…
Vitale there was a few things that I noticed about this Supreme Court case.
The first thing I noticed about this case was that this Supreme Court case all started because a PARENT had a problem with the school having their students recite a nondenominational prayer during class. From what I can understand after researching this Supreme Court case is that the student didn’t have a problem with reciting this prayer. He participated in the recitation of the prayer. It wasn’t until his father came to visit his son at school and saw that he was reciting this prayer, that he had a problem with it.
Steven Engel was Jewish man. His attitude towards his son reciting this prayer at school was basically, this is not the way we say prayers. He basically decided that he didn’t agree with the recitation of this prayer, so his son wasn’t allowed to recite this prayer. The father of this child did more to violate his sons first amendment rights than the school did. At least the school made it optional to participate in the recitation of this prayer everyday. The father basically told his son I don’t want you reciting that prayer because it goes against my religion. Then he decided to sue someone because the recitation of this prayer is contrary to his religion and what he believes, and his child also. Since when does a parent ever have the right to choose what their child does/doesn’t believe …show more content…
I am a christian. So I see the issue taking place in this court case differently then someone with different beliefs than me would. I also get that my opinion on this issue may be considered biased to some of y’all. That’s alright with me. Anyways I realize my discussion post is really long and if you actually read everything I had to say. Thank you :) I’m willing to keep a open mind on this issue. If you have any opinions on this Supreme Court case, or anything that’s related to this issue in general. I’d love to hear what y’all have to say about