Answer:
Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on June 19, 2000, ruled (6–3) that a Texas school board policy that allowed “student-led, student-initiated prayer” before varsity high-school football games was a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which generally prohibits the government from establishing, advancing, or giving favour to any religion.
the issue that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court concerned a policy that called for students to vote on whether prayers would be delivered prior to football games and to select a student who would deliver them. After the students approved the inclusion of prayers at the game, a federal district court ruled that only nonsectarian and nonproselytizing prayers could be delivered. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, ruled that any football prayer was unconstitutional, as a violation of the establishment clause.
The school board contended that control of the pregame message was left to students who also chose the speaker and the content of the message by a majority vote. Thus, according to the board, the prayer qualified as “private speech” and was protected by the First Amendment’s free speech and free exercise clauses. However, the court ruled that The court was of the opinion that the policy would only lead to student messages that were, rather than private speech, actually religious speech directly sponsored and endorsed by a governmental agency.
