School District V. Schempp

The appeals court decision came almost 40 years to the day after the Supreme Court decision in Engel v. Vitale. In that case, the court ruled it unconstitutional for public schools to allow prayer, even though the prayer was non-denominational and students were allowed abstain from the exercise. When

In 1969, three young activists walked into school and were told they could not symbolically express themselves. Without these teens carrying out this simple act of rebellion, students today would lack basic rights in the school place, as they would have no outlet outside of the home to express their views. In order to understand Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District one must examine the history behind the case, analyze the case itself, and evaluate the impacts on modern society.

In summarizing the salient points of the Supreme Court case Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, it had to do with the respondent’s father who sued candidates, including a school region, affirming that the school locale's approach requiring the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at his little girl's school damaged the First Amendment. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the father had standing and decided for the father. Certiorari was conceded to audit the standing and First Amendment issues.

They stated that religion unifies many people and puts faith into America. The State believed that the prayer would help bring out the spiritual side of children. The parents argued that the prayer quite simply violated the first amendment, the separation of church and state and requires that the government stay out of the business of prescribing religious activities of any kind. They argued that because not all students shared the same religious beliefs, the public schools should not be a place to preach religion, and believed that religious freedom of the students was being corrupted by providing time during school for prayer. The State rebutted that the prayer was completely optional, therefore was constitutional; if the prayer was against a child’s religion, or if they simply did not want to they did not have to take part in the prayer. A case very similar to this one took place rather recently. An excerpt from the pledge of allegiance states “one nation, under God.” A parent of a child attending pleaded that having said words in the pledge of allegiance is in violation of the Establishment Clause, and took it to the Supreme Court, this is the case of Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow. The Court's decision was that the excerpt did not violate the constitution because it is a symbol of our heritage and it is a

In the Supreme Court case “Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 1995,” the question before the court was whether or not “...random drug testing of high school athletes violates the reasonable search and seizure clause of the Fourth Amendment.”(“Vernonia School District.” [Oyez]). The case concerned the Fourth Amendment, which protects a person’s right to privacy and protects them from unreasonable searches and seizures. In this case, a seventh-grade student, James Acton, claimed that the situation regarding a mandatory drug test in his school was an unreasonable search. Without doing the test, he was not allowed to join an athletic team. Although the court case changed its name order, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court trial was the Vernonia

The families of the students filed suit in the District Court stating that their First Amendment rights were violated. The case went before the District Court and was appealed to the Supreme Court. The families sought for nominal damages as well (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District

The First Amendment being fought over, in 2004, Elk Grove Unified School District vs. Newdew, a father challenged constitutionality of requiring public school teachers to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, which included the phrase " Under God", since 1954. The court determined that mr. Newdew, as a non-custodial parent, did not have standing to bring the case to

The second law case, 468 U.S. 883, was documented in the Supreme Court of United States on July 5th, 1984. The case lectured about Amber Tatro, an 8-year-old girl from Texas who was diagnosed with Spina Bifida, and discussed whether the school should provide catheterization service to her during class hours. This was the first case for the Court to define the distinction between “School Health Services” and “Medical Services”.

This Supreme Court case involved First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District involved three public school students (petitioners) in Des Moines, Iowa who were suspended from school, because they wore black armbands in protest of the government's policy in Vietnam. The petitioners sought damages and an injunction against the regulation preventing them from wearing the armbands. Their complaint was dismissed by the District Court on February 24, 1969, because the Court determined that the regulation was within the authority of the Board's power though there was no proof that the behavior had "materially and substantially" interfered with the school's ability to conduct school activities.

Schempp 374 US 203 (1963), 2015). The Schempp family were Unitarians, so they objected to some ideas in the Bible. They had the option to excuse their children from the Bible reading, but then their children would have missed out on some of the morning announcements. (Supreme Court Cases, 2015) So as to not hinder their children?s learning opportunities, the Schempp family brought their issue to the State appeals court. Later, the State appeals court took the side of the Schempp family and stated the Abington School District violated the Establishment Clause, which is a clause in the First Amendment that prohibits the government from establishing a religion. (Supreme Court Cases, 2015) When the issue was brought to the Supreme Court in 1963, the question was simple, did the Pennsylvania law and Abington 's policy violate the religious freedom of their students that is protected by the 1st and 14th Amendments (Chicago-Kent College of Law, 2015)?

A public school in New York during the start of each school day started with the Pledge of Allegiance and followed by a nondenominational prayer. The New York state law also allowed students to skip the prayer if found offensive. A parent of a student attending this school sued deeming the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Supreme Courts majority rule (8-1) claimed YES the public school sponsored prayer violates Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, even with allowing students to skip the prayer, it was still considered unconstitutional. This case is important because Chief Justice, Earl Warren states that school sanctioned prayers, including any type of public promotion of religion, violates the Establishment

Sumter County School District 17 Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Joseph Heffernann, on behalf of his son TH; May Baire, on behalf of her son TH Defendants-Appellees. United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. (No. 09-1921)

Facts: In May of 1983, proof pages for the school newspaper was given to Principal Robert E. Reynolds. Upon review, Reynolds discovered that the paper, the Spectrum, included two articles that he deemed inappropriate for the school paper. One of the articles was about a girl who blamed her father for her parent’s divorce and the other was about school life as a pregnant teenager. Student Cathy Kuhlmeir, along with two other former Hazelwood East students, brought suit in the District Court (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, n.d.).

The issue of school prayer is not one of religious freedom, as it is already legal for children to pray in school, either individually or in groups. Since the Engel decision in 1962, religious advocates have been assailing the Supreme Court for "taking God out of the classroom." In an effort to reverse this trend, conservative religious groups have been fighting for the passage of a school prayer amendment to gain greater leeway for religious activities in schools.

In 1947, 2 million public schools were released to attend religious classes during some part of the week. In the McCollum v. Board of Education of Champaign, Illinois case, in 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that releasing students to attend religious classes in public school buildings was illegal (Pulliam, J. & Van Patten, J., 1999). A case in New York later found that releasing students to take these classes outside of public schools did not violate the separation of church and state. Educational practices have been changed due to lawsuits and regulations that have come from them. The issue of participating in religious activities held by the school was found to