Establishment Clause

First Amendment

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”

Super important, pilgrims wanted to establish “god’s kingdom on earth”

Two religious freedoms

  1. Establishment clause: no established religion in the US. No official religion, separation between church + state

  2. Free exercise clause. Right to practice whatever religion you choose

Absolute term “no” cannot truly be absolute.

Two schools of thought regarding the Establishment Clause

  1. Strict Separation

    1. Separation of church and state. What separates them is a “giant 20 foot tall prison wall built with concrete and iron”

    2. There can be no interaction between church and state

    3. Not how our system works

      1. “in God we trust” on our money, “In god we trust” in the pledge of allegiance

  2. Accommodationists

    1. A picket fence separates church and state

    2. Can sometimes interact with each other

    3. At sometimes they cannot interact with each other

      1. Determined by SCOTUS rulings

Engel v Vitale

Facts

NY State board of Regents issued a short, voluntary prayer to be said before each school day

Organizers challenged the prayer, saying it violated the Establishment Clause of the first amendment

NY court of appeals rejected their arguments

Question

Does the reading of a nondenominational prayer at the start of the school day violate the "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment?

Conclusion

6 - 1 for Engel

The state cannot hold prayers in public schools, even if participation is not required and the prayer is not tied to a particular religion. 

the policy breached the constitutional wall of separation between church and state


Lemon V Kurtzman

Facts

Pennsylvania and Rhode Island adopted statutes that provided for the state to pay for aspects of non-secular, non-public education (Religious Edu).

  • The PA statue provided funding for non-public elementary and secondary school teachers’ salaries, textbooks, and instructional materials for secular subjects

  • Rhode Island’s statue provided state financial support for non-public elementary schools in the form of supplementing 15% of teachers’ annual salaries.

The 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.

  • Lemon had a child in the PA school system

  • District court dismissed the case

In the Rhode Island Case, 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.

  • District court ruled in favor of the appellate and found the statue violated the first amendment

The religious schools were being shut down, and the city did not want that to happen

  • schools have limited recourses, and it is beneficial to have a wide varsity of education options

  • Public schools pay way more than private religious schools

  • School decided to pay a $5,000 year supplement to religious school’s teachers using taxpayers money

Question

Do statutes that provide state funding for non-public, non-secular schools violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?

Conclusion

8 - 1 For Lemon

The Court held that a statute must pass a three-pronged test in order to avoid violating the Establishment Clause.


The Lemon Test: If we answer yes to any question, it is unconstitutional! (Only applies if government is giving money to the school) (school employees are attending a lunch were religion is happening)

  1. secular legislative purpose

    1. transportation to schools, textbooks,

  2. principal or primary effect must be one that neither promotes nor inhibits religion

    1. Using Money to go to “bible Land” on a field trip vs using money to go to the zoo

  3. it must not foster “excessive government entanglement with religion.”

    1. “catch all”, most ambiguous. Government must monitor how the aid is being used

    2. The aid should go to a specific secular purpose, and it cannot require government to constantly monitor how the aid is being used

    3. “Make sure the Gym we have funded is not used for bible study!”

Courts Found that the statutes constituted an excessive government entanglement with religion.

Danger was not only that religion would infiltrate the government, but also that the government would push secularization onto religious creeds.

Creates an obstacle to the use of public funds for secular education. He argued that there was no proof that religion would invade secular education or that the government oversight of the use of public funds would be so extensive as to constitute entanglement.

Wallace V Jaffree

Facts

An Alabama law authorized teachers to conduct regular religious prayer services and activities in school classrooms during the school day. Three of Jeffree's children attended public schools in Mobile.

Question

Did Alabama law violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause?

Conclusion

Ruled for Jaffree. The Court determined the constitutionality of Alabama's prayer and meditation statute by applying the secular purpose test, which asked if the state's actual purpose was to endorse or disapprove of religion.

not only a deviation from the state's duty to maintain absolute neutrality toward religion, but was an affirmative endorsement of religion.

Sought to establish religion is a secular school

Lee V Weisman

Facts

In Rhode Island, Robert E. Lee, a middle school principal, invited a rabbi to speak at his school's graduation ceremony.

  • it was the practice of other middle and high school principles

Daniel Weisman was Hoping to stop the rabbi from speaking at his daughter's graduation, Weisman sought a temporary restraining order in District Court - but was denied.

After the ceremony when the prayers were said, Weisman filed for a permanent injunction barring Lee and other Providence public school officials from inviting clergy to deliver invocations and benedictions at their schools' ceremonies.

Question

Does the inclusion of clergy who offer prayers at official public school ceremonies violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?

Conclusion

Yes, 5 - 4

the Court held that government involvement in this case creates "a state-sponsored and state-directed religious exercise in a public school." The school's rule creates subtle and indirect coercion (students must stand respectfully and silently), forcing students to act in ways which establish a state religion.

Does not matter what religion it is (Jewish, Christian, Muslim)

Santa Fe Independent School District V Doe

Facts

1995, A student elected as Santa Fe High School's student council chaplain delivered a prayer, described as overtly Christian, over the public address system before each home varsity football game.

One Mormon and one Catholic family filed suit challenging this practice and others under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

While the suit was pending, the District adopted a new policy, which permitted, but did not require, student-initiated and student-led prayer at all the home games and which authorized two student elections,

  1. determine whether "invocations" should be delivered at games

  2. select the spokesperson to deliver them

The students voted to have the prayers and elected a spokesperson

the District Court entered an order modifying the policy to permit only nonsectarian, no proselytizing prayer.

The District petitioned for a writ of certiorari, claiming its policy did not violate the Establishment Clause because the football game messages were private student speech, not public speech.

Question

Does the Santa Fe Independent School District's policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?

Conclusion

Yes 6 - 3

Court held that the District's policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games violates the Establishment Clause.

football game prayers were public speech authorized by a government policy and taking place on government property at government-sponsored school-related events and that the District's policy involved both perceived and actual government endorsement of the delivery of prayer at important school events.


Everson

Bussing kids to religious schools using public transportation

  • The government is paying for that religious education (free transportation)

SCOTUS said it was fine because the primary benefit is to the child

  • that benefit is secular in nature

  • majority of time at school is spent learning math, science, history, English, government

    • Not religion

  • As long as government is neutral in relations

    • If it buses kids to a catholic school, it must also buss kids to a protestant school, a Jewish school

    • Treat all religions the same

Allegheny Vs ACLU

ACLU is concerned with civil liberties and individual rights

ACLU sues Pittsburgh (Allegheny county)

  • Downtown Pittsburgh is transformed into a Christmas wonderland.

    • using taxpayer money!

  • Christmas is a religious holiday!

Excessive Government entanglement?
Inside the lobby of the courthouse was a nativity scene

  • Baby Jesus, Donkey, Mary, Joseph, 3 wise men, star

  • Directly across from the courthouse was a menorah (Hanukkah) outside

  • Next to the menorah was Santa, and Rodolph

Are these types of decorations ok? Or are these a violation of the establishment clause?

Only the nativity scene was violating the establishment clause

  • due to the location. It being inside the courthouse was it being intimidating as it can view the courthouse as “a Christian court”

    • Intimidating Location would a reasonable person be intimidating

  • The Jewish menorah was ok in its location because it was accompanied by a secular symbol (Santa)

Amanda Jenkins

Question:

Is the prayer at the Senior Family Dinner violate the first and 14 amendment of the constitution?

Result?

The prayer at the school is unconstitutional.

Engel v Vitale found that prayer in public school unconstitutional as it violates the separation of church and state. Even if prayer is not required and it is not required.

It violates the Lemon test as it promotes “excessive entanglement with religion”.

Studying

  1. what role SCOTUS plays in the context of our system

    1. Judiciary act, 3 tiers court system, fun facts,

  2. How SCOTUS does judicial review, incorporation theory, opinions

    1. Interpretation of laws, how, why, 14th amendment, the parts of an opinion

  3. Can we do what the SCOTUS does (Freedom of speech, abortion, establishment clause, the other one)

    1. learn this!! You must know these cases in order to do the essay.

    2. Group them by civil liberties, then look for a key phrase in each case

    3. Do we have to know the facts of the case? Yeah, kind of. We want mastery of each case