Mae O’Neil
Mrs. Gordon
AP US Government and Politics
21 August 2019
Whether we know it or not thousands of decisions have been made for this country that shape how we live our lives each day. Things that we wouldn’t even think of, like whether or not you are forced to say a prayer in a public school each morning, or whether or not you can bring a firearm into a school. These issues have been argued over countless times and thought through by the people who run our government. Without these rulings life as we know it would be changed forever.
In 1958 a dispute arose in a school district in New York. A group of parents lead by Stephen Engel brought up concerns to the school board about their children saying Catholic prayers each morning at their public school (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Eventually, the parents decided to sue William Vitale, the school board president. The courts of New York said that because the prayers weren’t being forced upon the students it didn’t violate the constitution. They then appealed to the supreme court, and they ruled that it was against the constitution to say prayers in a public school. It violated the first amendment by not allowing students to exercise their right to freedom of religion. This court was right-leaning, however, most of the judges were centrists. Chief Justice Warren ruled in favor of Engel. The final decision was 6-1, with justices White and Frankfurter not taking part in the vote (Oyez).
In 1992 Alfonzo Lopez Junior walked into his high school carrying a handgun. When he was arrested he was charged for coming into school with a gun by the state of Texas. However, the next day the federal government charged him saying that he violated the Gun-Free School Zone Act. He was found guilty in a Texas court and then appealed and was found innocent. The prosecution appealed to the supreme court. The defense’s argument was that because of the fact that schools were under state authority that congress didn’t have the right to bring the Gun-Free School Zone Act into law. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled in favor of Lopez. This case really had a lot to do with the idea of the 10th amendment which talks about the idea of Federalism. With a conservative court and Chief Justice, this case pinned the 2 parties against each other. All of the liberal judges voted against Lopez and all of the conservatives for Lopez (Oyez).
In 2008 Citizens United an ideological group wanted to come out with a negative documentary about Hillary Clinton. This set off several alarms alerting the Federal Election Commission (Oyez). A law that was passed during the Bush administration that said, “a corporation or union can’t even mention a candidate in a broadcast ad within 60 days of a general election, or within 30 days of a primary”(Khan Academy). The matter was taken to the U.S. district courts. The district courts sided in favor of the F.E.C., and so Citizens United appealed to the Supreme Court. Citizens Untied’s argument was that if there was biased news in the media why couldn’t corporations be biased as well. They said that it was violating their first amendment right to freedom of speech. The court eventually ruled that corporations and unions would now have the right to run any propaganda they wanted to. The court was a mostly conservative court and so was Chief Justice Roberts. Chief Justice “Roberts more than anyone shaped what the court did” (Toobin).
Each of these cases has a ringing impact on each citizen every day. If the court had sided with the F.E.C. maybe the super P.A.Cs that donate to almost every candidate wouldn’t be controlling our government. If the courts had sided against Lopez may be our nation’s schools would be safer. If the courts had sided with Vitale maybe everyone in the nation would be forced to pray each morning. Each of these cases has changed life as we know it and I guarantee that if they had gone in any different direction our world would be flipped upside down.
Works cited:
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Engel v. Vitale.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 June 2019, www.britannica.com/event/Engel-v-Vitale
“Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy,www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/us-gov-political-participation/us-gov-campaign-finance/v/citizens-united-v-federal-election-commission.
"Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/2008/08-205. Accessed 17 Aug. 2019.
Toobin, Jeffrey. “How Chief Justice John Roberts Orchestrated the Citizens United Decision.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 13 July 2018, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/05/21/money-unlimited.
"United States v. Lopez." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/1994/93-1260. Accessed 19 Aug. 2019.
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