The Establishment Clause:
Arguments against the interpretation of the Establishment Clause have been more recent than that of the Free Exercise Clause. This Clause states,
“The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion….” The very first Establishment Clause case brought forth to the Supreme Court was in the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education case. This case is considered a landmark decision, mainly because it tied the Establishment Clause to the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, thus making it applicable to each State. This case set forth boundaries and secured an interpretation of the Establishment Cause which prohibits government actions …show more content…
Kurtzman case, the longest-standing test was entrenched in the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Establishment Cause. Thus, the “Lemon Test” was created and is still used in the court today. The Lemon test is a three-prong test and the Supreme has stated that if a challenged law fails to meet any one of these prongs, it is unconstitutional. The first prong states that the statute must have a secular legislative purpose, meaning it is not solely in support of a religious purpose. The second prong of the test states that the statute 's principle or primary effect must be one that neither "advances nor inhibits religion," this however does not mean that religion may not profit from the statute at all. It simply means that the main outcome of the statute cannot purely benefit or promote religion. The third and final prong states that the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion, meaning the government will have little involvement in how the religion works and religion will have little involvement with house government works. The Lemon test has proven to be quite effective in the opinion of the court and it is one that Justice Ginsburg has relied upon when giving her
Arguments against the interpretation of the Establishment Clause have been more recent than that of the Free Exercise Clause. This Clause states,
“The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion….” The very first Establishment Clause case brought forth to the Supreme Court was in the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education case. This case is considered a landmark decision, mainly because it tied the Establishment Clause to the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, thus making it applicable to each State. This case set forth boundaries and secured an interpretation of the Establishment Cause which prohibits government actions …show more content…
Kurtzman case, the longest-standing test was entrenched in the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Establishment Cause. Thus, the “Lemon Test” was created and is still used in the court today. The Lemon test is a three-prong test and the Supreme has stated that if a challenged law fails to meet any one of these prongs, it is unconstitutional. The first prong states that the statute must have a secular legislative purpose, meaning it is not solely in support of a religious purpose. The second prong of the test states that the statute 's principle or primary effect must be one that neither "advances nor inhibits religion," this however does not mean that religion may not profit from the statute at all. It simply means that the main outcome of the statute cannot purely benefit or promote religion. The third and final prong states that the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion, meaning the government will have little involvement in how the religion works and religion will have little involvement with house government works. The Lemon test has proven to be quite effective in the opinion of the court and it is one that Justice Ginsburg has relied upon when giving her