American Law: Court Cases - Essay Example

There are several unique characteristics to this type of popular democracy, such as separation of powers between the federal and state governments (federalism), power of judicial review by the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbiter in constitutional interpretations of its provisions and all the various amendments (a total of 24 so far) which primarily were adopted to safeguard individuals’ civil liberties against any possible inchoate tyrannical tendencies of those in power. This paper is a brief discussion on one of the most hallowed constitutional provisions, which is the separation between the Church and the State, as enshrined in the so-called Establishment Clause.

Discussion The founding fathers of America were fully cognizant of the dangers of selecting any of particular religions which they foresee as a divisive issue. This was why the framers of the U.S. Constitution saw it fit to specifically include the Establishment Clause which prohibits any state religion in the country but, at the same time, guarantees complete religious freedom with its Free Exercise Clause. This constitutional provision was first interpreted by the Supreme Court back in 1878 in a case of polygamy (actually bigamy) and subsequent court decisions further re-affirmed this separation between the Church and the State.

The first case on Establishment Clause was in Everson v. Board of Education in 1947 but a real precedent was the Engel v. Vitale 1962 case. The U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Engel v. Vitale was a landmark case because it settled the issue on the practice of religion, which the Constitution has expressly prohibited for the State to engage itself in. Other peripheral but integral issues were tackled as well, like the power of the states to determine the extent of its freedoms but limited by the scope of the federal government's jurisdiction on some matters.

The other tangential issue in the Engel v. Vitale was the supremacy clause, which is the power of the U.S. Supreme Court to be the final arbiter on issues of constitutionality. This means it decides on cases or issues with finality after appeals in the lower courts (Rosenblatt, n. d.) and its decisions are no longer subject to a higher review. The Engel v. Vitale case arose from a decision of the New York State Board of Regents (or today’s state board of education) to implement a 22-word non-denominational prayer within the schools falling under its jurisdiction.

This was adopted in the spirit of the times when a threat of communism was imminent during the Cold War period to help inculcate in the pupils a sense of patriotism, good citizenship, civic duty and moral character. Pupil participation in a so-called “prayer-exercise” was purely voluntary and the school board thought this was safe since there is no compulsion whatsoever to participate in such “prayer-exercise” held at the start of each class. The parents of ten pupils brought suit against this school board order because they say or contend that it is violative of the Establishment Clause prohibited in the U.S. Constitution and violates their rights because the “prayer-exercise” constituted some form of state religious prayer or activity and so they sought to ban the said practice from the schools which their children had been attending.

They lost their case in the state court but won on appeal in the Supreme Court; it set a precedent in American constitutional law on the issue of separation of Church and State. The Board of Regents based its