Violation of the Establishment Clause - Essay Example

The claim made by the student was countered by the district and the district stated that these prayers were very old-fashioned and were taking place for several years in the communities of Texas. They even argued that since these prayers were conducted by the students themselves, these prayers were not anything more than a speech conducted by a student and by no means was a speech that was sponsored by the state itself.  

The issue that was under trial, in this case, was to figure out whether prayers that were conducted before sports games were in violation of the Establishment Clause.

This case was a 6 -3 decision in which the court decided that the prayers conducted by students before commencement of football games taking place at a public address system give an image that the state government is trying to endorse religious activities and due to this such activities were found to be in violation of the Establishment Clause1.

The district had failed to persuade the court into believing that prayers conducted before high school level football games were a private matter of the students. These prayers and their content were regulated, administered and monitored by the school and due to this; these prayers were considered as if the government preferred such speeches and prayers which are religious in nature. Secondly, according to the historical background of practices that were religious in nature and were conducted in the district of schools, the policy that was undertaken by the district to elect students seemed to be created to preserve the performance of prayers taking place before the games were held.

The court even figured out that the method that was used to elect the prayer participants and to determine whether a particular message should be conveyed or not intensified the issue of violation of the Establishment Clause because these voting resulted in the rivalry between different individuals who were following different religions. Fourthly, the way the speaker was elected even reflected that prayers of those who were in the majority would take place. Due to all these factors, the court established that such practices were not only perceived to be endorsed by the state but were actually state-endorsed and were not constitutional.