Every morning in New Hyde Park School, in New York, students would recite "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence of Thee, and we beg Thy blessing upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country (Morgan 634)." A school body called the New York State Regent created this recited prayer, and said that pupils had the choice to remain silent during the prayer if they wanted to (Chandler 84). Mr. Engel and four other families thought the prayer to be offensive, and appealed their case to the Supreme Court in 1962 (Auble 1).

Engel, along with the other families, took one side of the argument. They believed that by reciting the short Regents' prayer they were partaking in a religious activity and therefore breaking the line between church and state. They also questioned why their tax money was used to pay teachers to lead the class in school prayer. Another point that they presented to

"Engel V. Vitale." http"//www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/prayer.htm#back (15 Dec. 1998).

Six Justices voted the recited prayer to be unconstitutional and one Justice voted that the Regents' prayer was constitutional. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the court for the case Engel v. Vitale. Justice Black addressed that the option to remain silent or leave the room was irrelevant to the case, Engel v. Vitale (Morgan 634). He further stated that the "State of New York has adopted a practice wholly inconsistent with the Establishment Clause (Lee 1)."

the Supreme Court was that the words in the prayer "Almighty God," was recognizing and singling out a specific religion. These families were Jewish, Atheist, Ethical Culture Society and Unitarian and by saying these words the families believed that they were going against their own religions (Auble 1-2). The Engels' sincerely believed that their First Amendment rights were being denied. The Constitution states in this amendment that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" The act of reciting the short prayer clearly went against their First Amendment rights (Engel 1).

Auble, Kelli. "Engel V. Vitale." http://www.co

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