1. Engle v. Vitale – 1962

2. Religious Freedom Enough of this Freedom of Religion Crap - YouTube

3. Is religion more unifying or divisive in American society?

4. Separation of Church & State
“a wall of separation between church and state.” – TJ
What does this mean?

5. 1) Solid Wall of Separation
Prohibits all forms of public aid for or support of religion

6. 2) The “wall” forbids the favoring by the state of one religion over another…not nondiscriminatory support/aid for all religions

7. 3) The “wall” only prohibits the establishment of a national religion

8. Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
Pennsylvania law that authorized Kurtzman (superintendent) to purchase secular educational services from nonpublic schools.
Kurtzman would use state levied taxes to reimburse nonpublic schools for expenses incurred for teachers’ salaries, textbooks, and instructional materials
Secular purposes only
Is this establishment of religion?
What is the reasoning behind your decision?

9. Establishment Clause: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”
Lemon Test:
1) Purpose
2) Promotion
3) Excessive entanglement ($)

10. Your assignment... --you are assigned to one of five groups of cases regarding establishment of religion --w/ your group a. read about each case b. discuss w/ your group c. apply the Lemon Test d. predict how the SC will decide e. present each case to the class and poll the class regarding their opinion

11. Establishment Clause: Cases
Group #1: Aid to religious schools
Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002)

12. Establishment Clause: Cases
Group #2—Public School facilities and funds
Widmar v. Vincent (1981)
Rosenberger v. U. of Virginia (1995)

13. Establishment Clause: Cases
Group #3—Religion in public schools
Epperson v. Arkansas (1968)
Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)

14. Establishment Clause: Cases
Group #4—Holiday Displays
Lynch v. Donelly (1984)
County of Allegheny v. ACLU (1989)
Jon Stewart--The War on Christmas

15. Establishment Clause: Cases
Group #5—Prayer in public schools
Engle v. Vitale (1962)
School District of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963)
Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)
Santa Fe School District v. Doe

16. Free Exercise Clause: “…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

17. Mass. V. David & Ginger Twitchell (1990)

18. Case #1: WV State Board of Ed v. Barnette (1943)

19. Case #2: Welsh v. United States (1970)

20. Case #3: State of Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

21. Case #4: Oregon Employment Division v. Smith (1990)

22. Case #5: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. Hialeah (1993)

23. Standards: How does the court decide/what criteria do they use?
Courts have been inconsistent in their rulings…
Sherbert-Yoder Test=less restrictive on free exercise
Smith Test=more restrictive on free exercise

24. 1) Legitimacy

25. 2) Balance: state must demonstrate a ‘compelling governmental interest’

26. 3) Compromise – “least restrictive means”

27. 4) Targeting – no “ex post facto” laws targeting religious practices