<P> In 1955, the New York Board of Regents developed a prayer recommended (but not required) for the school districts under its purview . The prayer was relatively short: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country ." The board stated that the prayer would "combat juvenile delinquency and counter the spread of Communism ." </P> <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, brought 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 was 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>

When was organized prayer banned from public schools