Thesis - In 1992, a case was brought to the Supreme Court that challenged the recitation of prayer in schools and school ceremonies. In response, the court ruled that all public schools from then on were prohibited from engaging, coercing or forcing students to partake in religious practices in school or state-sanctioned ceremonies, including graduations and award ceremonies. This ruling revolutionized the concept of religious freedom, helping to reform the American public school system into the widely secular one that exists today. The ruling also altered the means by which conclusions are arrived at in the Supreme Court by providing Justices with new focuses and creating new test on which to analyse a challenged statute on the basis of the Establishment Clause.