The Court rejected a claim by a Texas school district that the Equal Protection Clause mandated equal funding among school districts, ruling that there is no fundamental right to education guaranteed by the Constitution.203 (1963) (Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer), Engel marked the beginning of a much stronger effort by the Court to enforce a separation of church and state in the public schools. Why Is This Case Important? Along with School District of Abington Township, Penn.The Court also noted that the fact that student or adult-led prayer may be voluntary, or may be both nonsectarian and nonproselytizing, does not protect it from violating the Establishment Clause.The Court felt the prayer violated the first prong of the Lemon test: i.e.The Court found that school-sponsored “prayer” in general is an “inherently religious” activity, and therefore not constitutionally permissible.Challenge to a New York law that allowed public schools to start the day with a short, nondenominational prayer.

Why Is This Case Important? While it is unfortunate how inconsistently this decision was actually complied with, it marked the official end of school segregation, and its legal (and symbolic) significance cannot be overstated.Įngel v.Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Id. “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.537 (1896), which had legalized school segregation by adopting the “separate but equal” standard. Plaintiffs in Topeka, Kansas challenged legally-mandated race-segregated schools.Different school law attorneys will probably have different thoughts on what cases are the most impactful (I tried to include a special education case, but to me the law itself (IDEA) is more impactful than any of the decisions interpreting it), but here is my list.īrown v. It was fun last week during Spring Break trying to decide what cases I think are the most important, so I thought I would share my thoughts. So it’s not really a First Amendment post, but I’ve been asked to speak at a couple ABOTA Teacher Law School conferences this summer about the top Supreme Court cases impacting education.

Abington township v. schempp case brief