hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history and furthermore welcome to another video on your required supreme court cases for the ap government curriculum in this video we're going to be considering everything you need to know about the landmark case ingle v vitale so if you're ready to get them brain cows milk separation of church and state style well then let's get to it so as always let's begin with the facts of the case this case came before the court in 1962 and before that time the new york board of regents had composed a non-denominational prayer to be recited by school children after saying the pledge of allegiance and the prayer just 22 words in length went something like this almighty god we acknowledge our dependence upon thee and we beg thy blessings upon us our parents our teachers and our country now as far as prayers go that one's pretty vague like ain't nobody invoking jesus or allah in that prayer and what's more children could opt out of that prayer with written permission from their parents even so a group of parents led by stephen engel challenged the practice and why did they do that well for that let's consider the constitutional principle at stake for engel and his crew this prayer was a violation of the first amendment's establishment clause which in case you forgot says that congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion now if you're paying attention and i know that you are you might be saying wait what congress isn't even involved here this is a new york state law so how could engel claim that this law was violating his first amendment rights which protects citizens from the federal government now that's your question then let me hasten to remind you of the 14th amendment which says no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the united states so the 14th amendment essentially applies the first amendment to the states as well as to the federal government but don't get confused by all the amendments at the end of the day this is a case about the establishment clause of the first amendment okay so what was the decision well the question the court considered was this does the reading of a state-sponsored prayer at the beginning of school violate the establishment clause of the first amendment and their answer in a 6-1 decision was yes the prayer did in fact violate the first amendment it was justice hugo black who wrote the majority opinion and in it he said the first amendment was added to the constitution to stand as a guarantee that neither the power nor the prestige of the federal government would be used to control support or influence the kinds of prayer the american people can say now justice potter stewart was the one justice who dissented and his reasoning was that the practice of school prayer was constitutional because it gave children quote the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of our nation additionally steward argued that the government isn't establishing a religion just by offering a prayer for those who want to pray however it was thomas jefferson's famous wall of separation between church and state that won the day in this case all right now let's talk about why this case matters first of all the engel decision was a demonstration of how the court ruled in favor of individual liberties remember in first amendment cases the court is always trying to strike a balance between social order and individual liberty and in this case they went with the latter second this case matters because it established the groundwork for many subsequent cases regarding schools and religious activities for example engel was cited in the wallace v jaffrey case in 1985 which struck down an alabama law that provided for a minute of silence at the beginning of the school day and in 1992 it was also the basis for declaring clergy-led prayer at a middle school graduation ceremony unconstitutional and there are several other cases i could mention but the point is engel v vitale was a very important case that had implications for the relationship between government and religion for decades to come okay i hope that helped and if you want even more help you can click right here and grab review packet which is going to help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may i've got videos on all the other required supreme court cases right here so click away if that's something you're into subscribe if you want me to keep making these videos and i shall surely oblige heimler out