How has the Supreme Court approached school prayer cases?
The speaker calls the football coach prayer case (Kennedy v. Bremerton) a five-to-four decision; it was 6-3. The vote count is not tested in the interventions.
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The speaker explains how the Supreme Court has handled prayer in public schools. In the early 1960s, starting with Engel v. Vitale, the Court held that teacher-led, government-prescribed prayer is unconstitutional because the school setting is coercive. Harder cases involve teachers' own religious expression, because teachers are both individuals with free exercise rights and authority figures acting for the state.
You'll be able to
- explain why the Court struck down teacher-led prayer in Engel v. Vitale even though students were not punished for refusing.
- describe what the establishment clause is designed to prevent, according to the speaker.
- explain why cases about teachers' religious expression, like the coach praying on the 50-yard line, are legally hard.
Key words
- Establishment clause
- The part of the First Amendment that stops the government from setting up or imposing religion.
- Free exercise
- The right of individuals to practise their own religion as they choose.
- Coercion
- Pressure that pushes people to do something, even without a formal punishment.
- Engel v. Vitale
- The early 1960s case in which the Court struck down New York's government-written Regents' prayer in public schools.
- Authority figure
- Someone, like a teacher, whose position gives them power over others and lets them speak for the state.
Transcript
Video Title: How has the Supreme Court approached school prayer cases?
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8yGNpYUt5s Transcript generated by YouTube Transcript Generator - Extract transcripts from any YouTube video instantly at https://transcriptgenerator.org ======================================== The Supreme Court first reached this question in the early 1960s in two cases and held that teacher led prescribed prayer in the public schools is unconstitutional. The first of these cases, Engel against Vitale was in New York and involved what was called the Regent's prayer. The government literally composed this prayer, named a committee with I think there was a Protestant clergyman and Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi on the committee and they got together and wrote
this prayer. It was a government composed prayer but the students were all being asked to recite. Now, they weren't being compelled to recite it in the sense that they wouldn't be punished if they failed to do so but in the coercive atmosphere of a public school where when the teacher tells you, now we're going to recite a prayer or the pledge of allegiance, or we're going to read from the history book or we're going to perform a play or whatever it happens to be. We're going to go out and play soccer, you basically do what the teacher tells you to do.
The Supreme Court said that that's coercion around a government prescribed prayer. Now, I think that it was a very difficult case politically, but I think legally, that was another easy case. I think that's at the very core of what the establishment clause is designed to prevent, which is the use of government power to impose a religious practice on people that they have not freely chosen. If it's being imposed by the government, that is the government stepping into a relationship that is supposed to be between each individual and their God. I think the hardest questions have to do with involvement of teachers because teachers are individuals. They clearly have free exercise rights, but they are
also authority figures, and it's often very difficult to draw the line between which of those hats are they wearing at a particular time. If a teacher wants to bow their head and say a prayer at the beginning of lunch in the cafeteria, they have the right to do that, even if students might observe that and might actually influence students in some way. Teachers have the right to wear religious symbols, they can wear crosses around their necks. That Jewish, male teacher could wear a Yamaka. There was an important case in Oregon involving Sikhs wearing turbans, religiously identifiable garb. Can teachers read the Bible to themselves at their own desks. These have all been actual litigated cases. The most recent case, which is
a very controversial and five to four decision, I had to do with a teacher who was a football coach, at the end of the football game, he would go out and kneel on the 50 yard line and offer a prayer. These cases are hard. Unlike, I think the original school prayer cases, which in my opinion, were politically hard but not legally hard. Cases like the coach on the 50 yard line are difficult precisely because teachers are both. They're both individuals with rights of their own, and they are also authority figures bearing the authority of the state through being teachers.
It's really no wonder the cases like that have reasonable people on both sides.
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