8. Offering a broad interpretation of the Establishment Clause, Engel v. Vitale has remained contentious ever since it was authored in 1962
Following passage in New York of legislation encouraging students to begin the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a specific prayer, a group of parents, led by Steven Engel, issued suit against the school board president William Vitale Jr. Arguing the encouraged but not mandatory prayer contradicted their religious beliefs, the families sought to challenge the constitutionality of the composed prayer under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment. Upheld by the New York Court of Appeals, with the support of twenty-two state governments alongside that of New York’s, the group turned to the United States Supreme Court for redress.
Issuing a historic opinion in a 6-1 decision, Justice Hugo Black explained in detail the importance of the separation of church and state in the United States. Providing a long and detailed history, starting with the religious intolerance of sixteenth-century England, Black eloquently opined prescribing any religious activity in school for children was in violation of the Constitution. Most significantly, the court rejected the arguments that the traditional heritage of the American nation was religious and the prayer was voluntary as well as non-specific, instead asserting promotion of even the concept of religion is sufficient to meet the standard of a violation.