Docket 468
Engel v. Vitale
DecidedJun 25, 1962
6-1decision
Source: CourtListener.
Court bans state-composed prayer recitation in public schools
What it does
The ruling holds that government officials cannot write an official prayer and have public schools encourage students to recite it, even if recitation is voluntary and the prayer does not favor one religious sect over another. It establishes that the Establishment Clause bars government-composed religious exercises in public schools regardless of whether students are coerced to participate.
Who benefits
Students and parents who object to religious exercises composed or sponsored by government, including those of minority faiths or no faith, gain protection from having to encounter officially written prayers in public schools.
Who is affected
State and local school boards and education agencies that had adopted or wished to adopt official prayers for classroom recitation must stop the practice, even where participation is voluntary and the prayer is nondenominational.
Practical impact
Public schools nationwide were required to stop composing or sponsoring official prayers for classroom recitation, reshaping decades of practice in many school districts. The decision became a foundational precedent cited in later cases addressing school-sponsored religious activities, including moments of silence, graduation prayers, and school-sponsored religious ceremonies.
Majority reasoning
The majority, written by Justice Black, held that composing an official prayer for public school students to recite is inherently a religious activity that the government has no business performing, regardless of how nondenominational or brief the prayer is. The Court reasoned that the Establishment Clause does not require proof of direct coercion, unlike the Free Exercise Clause, because it aims to prevent government from placing its power and prestige behind any religious belief. Drawing on the history of the English Book of Common Prayer and colonial established churches, the majority explained that government-sponsored religion has historically bred persecution, social division, and disrespect for both government and religion. The majority added a footnote response to the dissent's comparison to patriotic ceremonies like the Pledge of Allegiance, distinguishing those as ceremonial acknowledgments of the Deity that bear no true resemblance to the unquestioned religious exercise New York sponsored.
Dissent reasoning
Justice Stewart dissented, arguing that permitting students who wish to pray to do so voluntarily does not establish an official religion, since no free exercise violation was found and students were free from compulsion. He argued the majority's historical analogies to England's established church and colonial establishments were not illuminating because this case did not involve creating a state church, only allowing children who wanted to pray to do so. Stewart pointed to numerous government religious traditions, such as the Court's own crier invoking God, congressional prayer sessions, presidential inaugural invocations of God, the National Anthem's religious references, the Pledge of Allegiance's "under God" phrase, and "In God We Trust" on currency, arguing these show the nation's officials have long recognized religious traditions without violating the Constitution. He concluded that denying children the choice to recite this prayer denies them the opportunity to share in the nation's spiritual heritage.
Constitutional question
Does a state agency's composition of a nondenominational prayer, recommended for voluntary recitation by public school students each day, violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment?