Establishment Clause Case Study

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution states that neither the federal not state governments can establish a religion or set up an official church. They also cannot pass laws that benefit a particular religion, or religion over a lack of religion. No one can be punished for his or her religion or lack thereof; also no taxes can be levied that support a religious institution. The Establishment Clause built a wall that separated church from state. Supreme Court decisions involving this clause have fallen under three categories; entanglement with religion, religion in public schools, and religious display. In Lemon vs. Kurtzman(1971), the Supreme Court decided that the government could not affiliate itself with or provide aid to a religious purpose. In order to help define a violation of the Establishment Clause, this case created a three-step test. A government action must pass these guidelines
1) the government aid must be secular in aim;
2) …show more content…
Engel v. Vitale (1962) ruled that any form of prayer, even nondenominational prayer or even the acknowledgement of a God is an unconstitutional government promotion of religion and is forbidden in public school settings. In Wallace vs. Jaffree (1985), even a daily moment of silence was decided to be encouraging prayer and therefore in violation of the Establishment Clause. Additionally, this clause has been referenced in discussion of the issue of teaching evolution in schools. In Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to forbid the teaching of evolution in schools or substitute it with a creationist theory of intelligent design because either option was considered an attempt to establish