Lemon v kurtzman

Lemon v. Kurtzman 1971

Facts  PA law provided reimbursement to private schools  Covered  Teacher salaries  Textbooks for nonreligious courses

Issue  Does the PA law violate the establishment clause of the 1st amendment and the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment?  1st amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  14th amendment: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall… deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Alton Lemon-ACLU (appellant)

 Church affiliated schools promote a particular religion.  Programs for reimbursement are “excessive entanglement” by state.  Oversight of schools would be difficult.

Listening to Lemon oral arguments  1. What subjects are mentioned?  2. How does a non-public school qualify for aid from the state?  3. What was the source of money used by Pennsylvania to pay the schools?  4. What question caused the court to laugh?

Kurtzman: appellee  15% salary supplement  Teacher’s teaching subjects offered in public schools  25% of state’s students went to non-public schools - 95% of these were Catholic  Schools serving more than 20% of area students  No establishment of “state” religion

Outcome  Court held that state program directly benefited parochial schools.  State supervision would produce excessive entanglement.  Created three-pronged test:

Significance – created 3-pronged test

 1. Purpose of aid must be clearly secular.  2. Primary effect of aid must neither advance nor inhibit religion.  3. Aid must avoid “excessive entanglement” of government with religion.

Opinion  “The substantial religious character of these church-related schools gives rise to entangling church-state relationships of the kind the Religion Clauses sought to avoid.”  Chief Justice Warren Burger (1971)

Works Cited  The Oyez Project, Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971), http://www.oyez.org/cases/19701979/1970/1970_89/  Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, Edwards, Lineberry et. al. Thirteenth Edition. 2008  Supreme Court majority opinion by Chief Justice Warren Burger http://supreme.justia.com/us/403/602/case.html