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Lemon Vs Kurtzman Case Analysis

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Lemon V. Kurtzman is a very important court case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Being that it isn’t a huge case in regards to the Supreme Court it is often overlooked. But the outcome of the case changed how Americans regarding certain things regarding the constitution constitutional. The when,why,what, who,and where will show the detail of this court case and its importance.
The Lemon V. Kurtzman case took place between Alton Lemon who filed a case against David Kurtzman who was the superintendent of the department of public instruction in Pennsylvania. The court case took place in Pennsylvania before moving to the Supreme Court but also had a couple meetings in Rhode Island that is not far from Pennsylvania. Court cases related …show more content…

The case was first heard in Pennsylvania but once that court ruled the law did not violate the first amendment he appealed and took it to the Supreme Court. In this hearing his main argument was that the law was in direct violation with the constitution which did not tolerate religions benefiting from state laws.The court went over the “three main evils” in order to prevent sponsorship, financial support, and involvement of the sovereign in religious activity. The first of those three tests is that the statute has to have a legislative purpose. Second, the principle must not advance or inhibit religion. Third, the statute cannot foster “ an excessive government entanglement with religion”. The Lemon v. Kurtzman case along with the Earley et al.v. DiCenso both passed the first test. Both had the intention to enhance quality of education. This argument convinced the judge and the law was considered unconstitutional. Not only did this case violate the first amendment but also the fourteenth amendment. That amendment states that a state cannot enforce a law that should take away the privileges of the citizens of the United States. It also mentions that a state should not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without the due processing of law. Especially with the DiCenso case though complete separation was impossible. Therefore, the decision wasn’t made for absolute separation but instead prevent encroachment as much as possible. Examples of that would be ensuring that the church followed building regulations and requiring that schools comply with the school attendance laws.This led to the creation of the lemon test which is not what it seems. Instead it is a classification system used to see if state laws regarding creating and the funding of religious institutions with money from the public is

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The issue in this case was whether school-sponsored nondenominational prayer in public schools violates the Establishment clause of the first amendment (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This case dealt with a New York state law that had required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students recognized their dependence upon God (Facts and Case Summary - Engel v. Vitale, n.d.). This law had also allowed students to absent themselves from this activity if they found that it was objectionable. There was a parent that sued the school on behalf of their child. Their argument was that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as made applicable

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