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The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
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In 1864, Congress started to make "In God We Trust" on the coins.
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The Supreme Court declared that students were not to be made to salute the flag.
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The establishment Clause does not allow teachers to promote religion in schools.
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In 1948, teachers would teach about religion in instructional time at school. The students who did not wish to stay would go to a different classroom to work on their studies. The court ruled this as being against the establishment clause.
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The Supreme Court decided that it would be unconstitutional for teachers to teach religious beliefs in the classroom.
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The court declared that the students in the school should be allowed to leave school to go to religious trainings.
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The Board of Regents for New York State would always say a prayer before the beginning of each school day, and the courts found this to be unconstitutional.
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In Pennsylvania public schools, students were made to read ten Bible verses each morning. The students were also made to quote "The Lord's Prayer". The courts ruled this as unconstitutional.
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In Delaware, the practice of the faculty praying before board meetings was found as unconstitutional.
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The Lemon vs. Kurtzman case was about seeing how teachers in non public schools were teaching secular subjects. The courts seen this as unconstitutional.
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Three amish students stopped going to their high school because of religious beliefs after eighth grade.
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A Kentucky law stated that all schools should be made to place the Ten Commandments in each classroom, and then the parents got upset because they said it was against the Establishment Clause.
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The Weisman parents filed a suit against Lee when he invited a Jewish rabbi to deliver the prayer at the graduation. The courts declared that their should be no restrictions on prayer, and that the Jewish rabbi would not be invited back.
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The Sectetary of Education, Richard W. Riley says " Public schools can neither foster religion nor preclude it. Our public schools must treat religion with fairness and respect and vigorously protect religious expression as well as the freedom of conscience of all other students. In so doing our public schools reaffirm the First Amendment and enrich the lives of their students".