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The First Amendment was enacted.
It specified that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." -
Gitlow vs. New York
The fundamental concept of "liberty" embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the guarantees of the First Amendment and safeguards them against state interference. -
Cantwell vs. Connecticut
The fundamental concept of "liberty" embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the guarantees of the First Amendment and safeguards them against state interference. -
West Virginia vs. Barnette
The Supreme Court made it clear that students may not be required to salute the flag. -
Everson vs. Board of Education
The first major establishment clause decision, wherein the Court held that the government cannot aid any one religion or even all religions, but instead must be neutral toward religion. -
McCollum vs. Board of Education
Setting aside time in school, during school hours, for religious instruction was declared unconstituional. -
Zorach vs. Clausen
Led to "release-time" religious education, where the instruction takes place off school grounds. -
Engle vs. Vitale
The Supreme Court declared that school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading violated the establishment clause. -
School District of Abington Township vs. Schemp
The Supreme Court declared that school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading violated the establishment clause. -
Epperson vs. Arkansas
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down an Arkansas antievolution statute under the establishment clause, holding that evolution theory is a science and a state cannot restrict such teaching in favor of a religious preference. -
Lemon vs. Kurtzman
The Supreme Court announced a three-part test to evaluate establishment cluse claims. -
Wisconsin vs. Yoder
The best-known case involving a free exercise claim involving the Amish, where the Court exempted the children from school attendance after successful completion of eighth grade. -
Stone vs. Graham
In 1985, the Supreme Court declared a Kentucky law unconstitutional that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. -
Wallace vs. Jaffee
The Supreme Court struck down an Alabama law in 1985 that inserted the phrase "or voluntary prayer" into an existing statute that authorized a period of silent mediatation. -
Mozert vs. Hawkins County Board of Education
The parents were unsuccessful in their attempt to have their children excused from reading a basal reading series in the elementary schools in a Tennessee school district. -
Lee vs. Weisman
In a Rhode Island school district, it was declared unconstitutional by the Court for principals to invite members of the clergy to deliver invocations and benedictions at graduation ceremonies. -
Doe vs. Madison School District No. 321
An Idaho school district selected student speakers by class standing and allowed them to recite "an address, poem, reading, song, musical presentation, prayer, or any other pronouncement of their choosing." The Ninth Circuit Court upheld the school policy that prohibited school authorities from censoring the students' speeches. -
Altman vs. Beford Center School District
Parents succeeded in one New York case that asserted that parts of a program offended their Catholic faith. -
Lassonde vs. Pleasanton Unified School District
If public schools are in no way involved, there is no "state action" and therefore no violation of the establishment clause if students, churches, or other private groups rent space and conduct baccalaureate graduation ceremonies that include prayers. -
Newdow vs. United States
The only case to reach the Court so far dealing with "Under God" and was dismissed on precedural grounds because the father who brought the suit did not have legal custody of the student.