Essay Due

1

Prayer in Public Schools

Sara Lance

Ashford University

GEN103: Information Literacy

Instructor Smoak

April 15, 2020

Fill in the title that you’ve chosen

for your paper, your name, your

instructor’s name and the date.

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Prayer in Public Schools

Research Question: How have the courts weighed factors regarding the legality of prayer in

American public schools?

Scholarly Article 1

Reference:

Lain, C. B. (2015). God, civic virtue, and the American way: Reconstructing Engel. Stanford

Law Review, 67(3), 479-555. https://doi-org.proxy-

library.ashford.edu/10.31228/osf.io/fzhwp

Annotation:

This scholarly article focuses on the Supreme Court case Engel v Vitale (decided in

1963), which set the precedent that state-sponsored prayer in school is unconstitutional.

The author argues that while the decision was originally seen as, and continues to be seen

as, protecting religious minorities from being forced to participate in the religious

practices of the religious majority, the Supreme Court Justices did not view it that way

during the decision-making process. Rather, the Supreme Court Justices took into

account demographic changes (a significant increase in the Catholic population) as well

as cultural changes (a substantial decrease in anti-Semitism after the Holocaust) that had

created a more pluralistic society; they did not see themselves as protecting a religious

minority but as recognizing that there was not a prayer, no matter now bland and generic,

that could avoid offending some parties. In addition, the Supreme Court Justices looked

at the plain text of the First Amendment and determined that requiring public school

Your final research question from the Week 1 assignment

belongs here.

The APA-formattted reference for your scholarly article goes here. If you

need help with formatting, visit the Writing Center.

Your

annotation

belongs

here. Be

sure to

include all of

the elements

outlined in

the

assignment

instructions.

Be sure to

discuss the

sources

(evidence)

that the

author used

to support

his/her

points.

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students to recite a state-written prayer was clearly endorsing religion. There was little

disagreement on these points as indicated by the 6-1 decision, with one vacancy on the

court and one justice too ill to participate in deliberations. The author used a variety of

sources as evidence for this article, including the text of this and other Supreme Court

decisions, quotes from an interview with Justice Black, many newspaper and magazine

articles from the time period as well as historical and legal books and journal articles.

Many of the sources that I’ve read mentioned the Engel v. Vitale decision and indicated

its importance to this issue but this journal article provides detailed explanation of why

and how the case began as well as the reasoning behind the decision, backed up a variety

of historical and legal sources.

The author thoroughly supported her points throughout the article with extensive sources.

In addition to the text of the decision and an interview with Justice Black, the author also

used the personal papers of Justice Black to support her argument. This article provides

relatively current information, having been published in 2015. A significant portion of the

evidence supporting the thesis from the original court case in the early 1960s, but the

author also used more contemporary legal, scholarly, and news sources, all the way up to

the year before this article was published. The author has significant authority on this

topic as a Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the University of Richmond School of

Law. In addition, this article was published by the Stanford Law Review, which is well-

known and well-respected as a scholarly law journal. The most obvious limitation of this

article is that it focuses on the Engel v Vitale ruling; a number of other court rulings, both

by the Supreme Court and by lower courts, are relevant to my research question but are

not addressed in this article. This journal article answers my research question by

Provide

enough

detail in

your

annotations

to fully

describe

your

sources and

explain how

they fit into

your

research

project

Your

annotations

should be in

your own

words; there

should be no

quotes at all.

In-text

citations are

not needed

because you

will not have

quotes and

it is

understood

that all

information

comes from

the source

referenced

above the

annotation.

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explaining the reasoning behind the Engel v Vitale ruling, which set the original

precedent by which other religion in school cases were decided. It provides specific

information from the ruling and the historical context in which the ruling was made as

well as information about the public and media reaction to the ruling.

Scholarly Article 2

Reference:

Warnick, B. R. (2012). Student rights to religious expression and the special characteristics of

schools. Educational Theory, 62(1), 59-74. https://doi-org.proxy-

library.ashford.edu/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2011.00435.x

Annotation:

In this scholarly peer-reviewed article, Warnick examines the difficulty in balancing two

different parts of the First Amendment of the Constitution, the Establishment Clause with

the Free Exercise Clause, to show why it is difficult to determine what religious activities

are permissible for students in the public school environment. The Establishment Clause

prevents any part of the government from establishing or endorsing religion while the

Free Exercise Clause guarantees individuals the right to freely engage in religious

activities. Within the public school environment, students have the right to engage in

student-initiated prayer or other religious activity. Student-initiated religious activity

must be accommodated by school officials and it is often accommodated by allowing the

use of school property and other resources, which may give the appearance of official

endorsement of the religious activity. This can create difficulty in determining when

student-initiated religious activity has crossed the line into unconstitutional activity. The

Only the first word of the title, the subtitle, and proper nouns

should be capitalized. Also, remember to italicize the name of

the journal.

Remember

to fully

explain the

author’s

arguments

and the

evidence

that he/she

uses to

support

them.

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author also argues that school are unique areas in American society because education is

compulsory, they serve a range of ages, and because students are expected to gain a wide

range of competencies, eventually becoming capable members of society who understand

how ideas (both religious and secular) function to produce political outcomes. These

three elements that make schools a special place in American society contribute to the

difficulty with balancing the Free Exercise Clause with the Establishment Clause and

make the issue particularly controversial. Warnick used many scholarly sources as

references. He cited numerous education, legal, and philosophy journal articles and

books to support his points as well as relevant Supreme Court cases. This article is

different from many of the sources I’ve read because it explains why the issue of

religious expression in schools is complicated, both from the viewpoint of allowing

students the freedom of expression in a constitutional way and from the viewpoint of

ensuring that students receive a complete educational experience.

In this article, the author argues that the issue of prayer and religious activity in public

school is nuanced and complex; he supports that thesis well by citing many educational,

legal and philosophical sources that validated each element of his argument. The article

was published in 2012, so it is relatively current. The author, Bryan R. Warnick, has

authority on this issue as professor of Philosophy of Education at Ohio State University.

The journal, Educational Theory, was founded in 1951 and is a peer-reviewed journal so

this article is credible. The article is interesting but limited in usefulness to me because

the factors that courts consider is not the main focus. Instead, the author discussed

balancing the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Establishment Clause as part of a larger

discussion of the complexities of prayer and religious activities in public school. This

Discuss the

authority and

currency in

your

annotations as

you explain

the credibility

of your

sources.

6

article answers my research question by explaining how the two clauses of the First

Amendment that are relevant to the issue of religious activity in public school, the Free

Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause, apply in a school setting and how they can

be difficult to reconcile.

EBook

Reference:

Haiman, F. S. (2003). Religious Expression and the American Constitution. Michigan State

University Press.

Annotation:

This eBook examines many different facets of the First Amendment of the Constitution,

generally focusing on how it has been applied in court cases related to religion in

American society and the evolution of First Amendment cases throughout American

history. Of particular relevance to my research question is chapter four, “Religious

Expression in Public Schools.” This chapter is broken into six parts, covering prayer in

school and school-sponsored events, the Pledge of Allegiance, use of school resources for

religious meetings outside of school hours, evolution curriculum, school officials’

religious expression, and censorship of library and curricular resources. The author

discusses many Supreme Court and lower court cases, arguing that schools, because they

are viewed as shaping young minds, and are a particular focus of conflict over the proper

church-state balance. The courts have endeavored to both protect the rights of students

and faculty to freely exercise their chosen religion while also protect against state

coercion to engage in a specific religion (or any religion) or state endorsement of

The title of the eBook should be italicized.

Because this eBook came from the Ashford Library

database, no URL is included in the reference.

For the

eBook, you

may choose

to focus on a

specific

chapter that

is of

particular

importance

to your topic.

Be sure to

clearly

explain that

chapter’s

relevance and

discuss the

author’s

arguments

and evidence

in that

chapter.

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religion. In general, the goal of the courts has been for the state to be neutral in regard to

religion and neither favor or disfavor either a specific religious sect or religious practice

over nonpractice. The author supported his points in this book by citing and referencing

Supreme Court and lower court cases, media reports, and scholarly legal articles. This

article is similar to other sources that I read on this topic in that it discusses some of the

same cases and made some similar points. However, it also discussed many lower court

cases that were not mentioned in other sources and it addressed issues beyond prayer and

student religious activities in school, like religious expression of school officials,

censorship of library and curriculum materials, and the teaching of evolution.

The thesis of the relevant chapter of this eBook is best summarized by saying that the

courts have worked to balance the rights enumerated in the First Amendment on various

religious issues that find their way into public schools. The author supported that thesis

well by exploring those various topics and explaining how court rulings have evolved

over time, building on precedent. Although the author cited some scholarly secondary

sources, the majority of sources cited and referenced are court cases, illustrating the focus

of the author on discussing court rulings. This eBook is less current than other sources

chosen for this project, having been published in 2003. However, it is still current enough

for this topic and contains significant useful information. The author, Franklyn S.

Haiman, was Emeritus Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University.

He wrote additional scholarly works on the First Amendment and a national award for

freedom of expression was named in his honor. It would appear that he was an authority

on this issue. The eBook was published by the Michigan State University Press, which

indicates that this is a scholarly book and that it is a credible source. The limitation of

No source

can cover

all aspects

of a topic

so they all

have some

limitations.

Think

carefully

about

where the

source

might be

lacking.

8

this source is primarily that it is older and so does not include any cases or scholarship

written since 2003. In addition, the author largely used court cases as sources; while

there are some scholarly secondary sources cited and referenced, there are clearly fewer

scholarly secondary sources used in this source than in other scholarly sources used for

this project. While this source provides a thorough history of the evolution of the history

of religion in public school cases, it does not place them in the context of the scholarly

discussion as well as other sources in the project. This eBook addresses my research

question by looking at issues beyond just prayer in public school. By examining other

issues that fall under the First Amendment legal umbrella, it is easier to see how the

courts have worked to find a balance between the Free Expression and Establishment

Clauses. In addition, because this eBook also discusses lower court cases, it was easier to

understand how the precedent set by the Supreme Court cases affected subsequent cases

that came before these courts.

Be sure to include the transcript from your

Library Chat session below!

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Library Chat Transcript:

Copy and Paste transcript from the Library Chat here.