Fiorina, Peterson, Johnson, and Mayer New American Democracy, Sixth Edition Chapter 16 Special Topic The Establishment Clause © 2009, Pearson Education

Engel v. Vitale (1962) This case dealt with the neutral prayer mandated in public schools New York authorities thought they had written a prayer that would offend no one and thus would not violate the establishment clause But, the Court had interpreted in an earlier case to prohibit not merely government favoritism towards a particular religion but favoritism towards religion over non-religion – Both violate the establishment clause

© 2009, Pearson Education Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) After the Engle decision, Pennsylvania authorities thought the problem was that the government wrote the prayer So they mandated a prayer (the Lord ’ s Prayer) and a Bible reading at the beginning of the school day The Supreme Court, noting that this was favoring religion over non-religion declared it unconstitutional

© 2009, Pearson Education Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) The Court ruled that Arkansas could not prohibit the teaching of human biological evolution because it conflicted with the biblical account of creation

© 2009, Pearson Education Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) In this celebrated case, the Court articulated the test it used in establishment cases A law must pass every component of the Lemon test or it is unconstitutional The Lemon Test: 1. The law must have a secular purpose 2. The law’s effect must be to neither advance nor inhibit religion 3. The law must not create an excessive entanglement between church and state

© 2009, Pearson Education Stone v. Graham (1980) The Court struck down the posting of the Ten Commandments in a public school classroom The Court struck down the posting despite the fact that: –The posters were not read to the students –Were paid for by private donations not taxpayer money –And had a disclaimer at the bottom noting that it was an historical rather than religious document

© 2009, Pearson Education Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) The Court struck down Alabama ’ s moment of silence law The historical record demonstrated that the moment (which mentioned prayer) was a way of getting prayer back into the public schools

© 2009, Pearson Education Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) The Court struck down a Louisiana law that mandated the teaching of creation science in public schools if human biological evolution was taught

© 2009, Pearson Education Lee v. Weisman (1992) The Court struck down a public school ’ s wish to invite a Rabbi to lead a prayer at an eighth-grade graduation ceremony