Everything about Lemon V Kurtzman totally explained
Lemon v. Kurtzman,
403 U.S. 602 (
1971), was a case in which the
Supreme Court of the United States ruled that
Pennsylvania's
1968 Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which allowed the state Superintendent of Public Instruction to reimburse nonpublic schools (most of which were
Catholic) for teachers' salaries, textbooks and instructional materials, violated the Establishment clause of the First Amendment. The decision also upheld a decision of the
First Circuit, which had struck down the Rhode Island Salary Supplement Act providing state funds to supplement salaries at nonpublic elementary schools by 15%. As in Pennsylvania, most of these funds were spent on Catholic schools.
Lemon test
The Court's decision in this case established the "
Lemon test", which details the requirements for legislation concerning
religion. It consists of three prongs:
- The government's action must have a secular legislative purpose;
- The government's action must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion;
- The government's action must not result in an "excessive government entanglement" with religion.
If any of these 3 prongs are violated, the government's action is deemed unconstitutional under the
Establishment Clause of the
First Amendment to the
United States Constitution.
The act stipulated that "eligible teachers must teach only courses offered in the public schools, using only materials used in the public schools, and must agree not to teach courses in religion." Still, a three-judge panel found 25% of the State's elementary students attended nonpublic schools, about 95% of those attended Roman Catholic schools, and the sole beneficiaries under the act were 250 teachers at Roman Catholic schools.
The court found that the parochial school system was "an integral part of the religious mission of the Catholic Church," and held that the Act fostered "excessive entanglement" between government and religion, thus violating the Establishment Clause.
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