Today is the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in
Engle v. Vitale (1962) which held unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause New York's requirement that a non-denominational prayer composed by the state Board of Regents be recited in public school classrooms at the beginning of each school day. This was the first in a series of cases that barred school authorized prayer and Bible-reading in the public schools. Yesterday's
Deseret News, marking the anniversary, reviews the impact of the
Engle decision.