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The First Amendment
The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." -
"In God We Trust"
In 1864, Congress started to make "In God We Trust" on the coins. -
West Virginia vs. Barnette
The Supreme Court declared that students were not to be made to salute the flag. -
Everson vs. Board of Education of Ewing Township
The establishment Clause does not allow teachers to promote religion in schools. -
McCollum v. Board of Education
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. -
llinois vs. McCollum
The Supreme Court decided that it would be unconstitutional for teachers to teach religious beliefs in the classroom. -
Zorach vs. Clauson
The court declared that the students in the school should be allowed to leave school to go to religious trainings. -
Engel v. Vitale
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. -
Abington School District v. Schempp
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. -
Prayer
In Delaware, the practice of the faculty praying before board meetings was found as unconstitutional. -
Lemon vs. Kurtzman
The Lemon vs. Kurtzman case was about seeing how teachers in non public schools were teaching secular subjects. The courts seen this as unconstitutional. -
Wisconsin vs. Yoder
Three amish students stopped going to their high school because of religious beliefs after eighth grade. -
Stone vs. Graham
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. -
Lee vs. Weisman
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. -
Quote
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".