<P> Seven years later, Steven I. Engel, a Jew, was upset to see his son's hands clasped and his head bent in prayer . He told his son that this was "not the way we say prayers ." Engel, a founding member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, would bring action along with Daniel Lichtenstein, Monroe Lerner, Lenore Lyons, and Lawrence Roth, all parents of children in the Long Island, New York public school system, against Union Free School District No. 9 for its adoption and subsequent prescription of the so - called "Regent's prayer", arguing that it constituted the state - sponsored establishment of religion in violation of citizens' First Amendment rights via the Fourteenth Amendment . </P> <P> Use of the Regent's prayer would be initially upheld in both New York State Court and in the New York Court of Appeals, prompting Engels to petition the US Supreme Court in the Engel v. Vitale case in 1962 . With its 8--1 vote to make public recitation of the Regents' Prayer in public schools unlawful, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first - ever decision on prayer in public schools . It made its second in 1963--the Abington School District v. Schempp ruling, which made the corporate reading of the Bible and recitation of the Lord's Prayer unlawful in public schools . </P> <P> In these two landmark decisions, Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), the Supreme Court established what is now the current prohibition on state - sponsored prayer in US schools . While the Engel decision held that the promulgation of an official state - school prayer stood in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause (thus overruling the New York Courts' decisions), Abington held that Bible readings and other public school - sponsored religious activities were prohibited . Madalyn Murray's lawsuit, Murray v. Curlett, contributed to the removal of compulsory Bible reading from the public schools of the United States, and has had lasting and significant effects . </P> <P> Until the lawsuit, it was commonplace for students to participate in many types of religious activities while at school, including religious instruction itself . Nonreligious students were compelled to participate in such activities and were not usually given any opportunity to opt out . The Murray suit was combined with an earlier case, so the Court might have acted without Murray's intervention . With the success of the lawsuit, the intent of the Constitution with regard to the relationship between church and state again came under critical scrutiny and has remained there to this day . While students do continue to pray in public schools, even in organized groups such as "See You at the Pole", the lawsuit disallowed schools from including prayer as a compulsory activity required of every student . The success of O'Hair's lawsuit led to subsequent lawsuits by Mormon and Catholic families in Texas in 2000 to limit compulsory prayer at school - sponsored football games . </P>

When was prayer taken out of the schools