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Gov 4A Supreme Court Landmark cases (Engel V Vitale (1962) (Issue: School…
Gov 4A
Supreme Court Landmark cases
Engel V Vitale
(1962)
Issue:
School Prayer
Violated 1st amendment rights as it limited religious freedoms.
Decision:
6 to 1 in favour
Ruled that is was unconstitutional for states to set up an official school prayer.
School District of Abington V Schempp
(1963)
School sponsored bible reading
to be declared unconstitutional.
Warren Court
Court ruled in Schempp's favour
and struck down the state of Pennsylvania statute.
Pennsylvania changed
there
law
to allow
students to opt out
, Schempp challenged again and the court ruled in his favour.
Wallace V Jaffree
(1985)
Alabama state law authorised a silent prayer at the start of each day.
Court ruled in Jaffree's favour that the Alabama law violated constitutional principle.
It violated the
First Amendment
Burger Court
Dissent
Rehnquist
, case relies heavily on the misunderstanding of Jefferson's comment on the separation of Church and state.
Lee V Weissman
(1992)
Principle Lee invited a Rabbi to speak at a graduation speech, Weissman filed an injunction to bar the rabbi from speaking.
The question being reviewed was whether or not it was constitutional.
The Weissmans did attend the graduation, the rabbi did speak and the Weissmans continued their litigation.
Rehnquist Court
5-4 Decision in Weissman favour
Violates the 1st Amendment as the government cannot set up a religion.
Limits religion's role in public schools.
Zelman V Simmons-Harris
(2002)
School vouchers and religious schools.
State ran programme that allowed qualified student's parents to use public money to send their child to a private school.
46 of 56 participation schools were non religious
Argued unconstitutional as public money should not be spent on religious schools
Majority Opinion
Ruled that it was not unconstitutional
The programme was deemed religiously neutral
It was strictly in the aid of the poor
Parents had true private choice
Buckley V Valeo
(1976)
In the wake of the Watergate affair Congress attempted to ferret out corruption in political campaigns by restricting financial contributions to candidates
Federal Election Campaign Act 1971
Was it unconstitutional?
Burger Court
FECA does violate the 1st Amendment free speech clause
McConnel V FEC
(2004)
Background
Campaign Finance