Last modified on August 25, 2007, at 20:37

Lemon test

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The Lemon test was set forth in 1971 by the U.S. Supreme Court to enable suppression of nearly all public recognition of religion with an enormously expanded interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971). The test requires that all federal and state laws (1) have a secular purpose, (2) a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and (3) no excessive government entanglement with religion. If any law violates any part of this three-pronged test, then it will be stricken by the courts and declared unconstitutional.

Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote the Lemon decision for the Court, but admitted privately that he never intended for it to be applied in the broad manner that it was.[1]

References

  1. ↑ Dinner conversation between the late Chief Justice Warren Burger and Andrew Schlafly in late 1991.