Lemon v.

Kurtzman (1971)
Legal Brief # 1 RE: Separation of Church and State

Citation:
- Lewis, T. T. (2016). Lemon v. Kurtzman. Salem Press Encyclopedia
- Justia. U.S. Case Law. Retrieved March 21st, 2017, from
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/602/case.html
- Lemon v. Kurtzman. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved March 17, 2017, from
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/89
Facts:
- Alton Lemon, a Pennsylvania instructor, claimed that the State of Pennsylvania violated
the United States Constitution when they passed a law that allowed the local government
to use money to fund educational programs that taught religious-based lessons, activities,
and studies.
- The Supreme Court consolidated this case with a similar one from Rhode Island.
- Appellants in the Pennsylvania case represented citizens and taxpayers in Pennsylvania
who believed that the statute violated the separation of church and state described in the
First Amendment.
- In Rhode Island, the appellees were citizens and tax payers of Rhode Island who sued to
have the statute in question declared unconstitutional by arguing that it violated the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Issues:
- The issue for the case Lemon v. Kurtzman is that the funding for non-public, non-secular
schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Ruling:
- Lemon v. Kurtzman reached the Supreme Court of the United States, with a unanimous
decision in favor of Lemon.
- The court ruled that a statute must pass a three-pronged test in order to avoid violating the
Establishment Clause.
- First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose, secondly, its principal or
primary effect must be one that neither promotes nor inhibits religion, and lastly, it must
not foster excessive government entanglement with religion.
Rationale:
- In his concurring opinion, Justice William O. Douglas wrote that the intrusion of the
government into the running of non-public schools through grants and other funding
creates the entanglement that the Establishment Clause prohibits.
- Non-secular schools are so thoroughly governed by religious ideologies that any amount
of public funding supports those doctrines, which the Framers of the Constitution dictated
the government must not do.

Conclusion:
 Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
Legal Brief # 1 RE: Separation of Church and State

- For educators in public schools, this ruling reaffirms the holding that there must always
be a separation of church and state.
- For private, religious based schools, this ruling prohibits them from receiving
government funding.
- For me, this gives a better understanding of how the constitution impacts educational
entities.