LEMON V. KURTZMAN
Year: 1971
Result: 8:0, favor Lemon
Related Constitutional issue/amendment: 1st amendment (religion-establishment clause)
Civil Rights or Civil Liberties: Liberties
Significance/Precedent: Created the 'Lemon test' to decide if statutes relating to religious institutions are constitutional. This test states that the law must have a 'secular purpose, not advance nor inhibit religion, and have no excessive governmental entanglement with religion.' This test was later applied to other court cases such as Sante Fe ISD v. Doe and McCreary County v. ACLU.
Quote from majority opinion: "Under our system, the choice has been made that government is to be entirely excluded from the area of religious instruction, and churches excluded from the affairs of government. The Constitution decrees that religion must be a private matter for the individual, the family, and the institutions of private choice, and that, while some involvement and entanglement are inevitable, lines must be drawn."
6-word summary: financial aid can't fund religious schools
Result: 8:0, favor Lemon
Related Constitutional issue/amendment: 1st amendment (religion-establishment clause)
Civil Rights or Civil Liberties: Liberties
Significance/Precedent: Created the 'Lemon test' to decide if statutes relating to religious institutions are constitutional. This test states that the law must have a 'secular purpose, not advance nor inhibit religion, and have no excessive governmental entanglement with religion.' This test was later applied to other court cases such as Sante Fe ISD v. Doe and McCreary County v. ACLU.
Quote from majority opinion: "Under our system, the choice has been made that government is to be entirely excluded from the area of religious instruction, and churches excluded from the affairs of government. The Constitution decrees that religion must be a private matter for the individual, the family, and the institutions of private choice, and that, while some involvement and entanglement are inevitable, lines must be drawn."
6-word summary: financial aid can't fund religious schools