The first case brought by Lewis found its way to the New York State Supreme Court in 1957. Joseph Lewis maintained that the Commissioner of Education of the State of New York had a duty, which he had failed to perform, to revoke the regulation requiring the recitation of the Pledge with the new phrase, and reinstate the old wording. Lewis did not cite any state regulations concerning the Commissioner, but held the Commissioner was bound to act by the U.S. First Amendment (which was applied to the State governments through the Fourteenth Amendment) and by article I and XI of the New York State Constitution.