The Court System
Figure 9.1
245
Religion and the First Amendment . . .
Three-Pronged Test (from Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971) To be constitutional . . . Establishment Clause “. . . respecting an establishment of religion . . .”
The act or policy must have been adopted with a secular purpose. The primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion. The law or policy must not result in an excessive entanglement of government and religion.
FIRST AMENDMENT “Congress shall make no law . . .”
Two-Pronged Test
Free Exercise Clause “. . . or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”
The plaintiffs must prove that their beliefs are sincerely held and that the protested government action truly injures the exercise of those beliefs. The government must prove that a truly compelling public necessity requires restricting that free exercise and that no less restrictive means are available.
courts within its particular geographic area. Unsuccessful litigants may request that the US Supreme Court review their case. If four of the nine justices agree, the Supreme Court will take the case; if not, the appellate court ruling stands.2 Decisions of a court below the US Supreme Court have force only in the geographic area served by that particular court. For this reason, it is possible to find conflicting rulings in different circuits. Judges often look to previous case law for guidance in rendering decisions, and they might find precedents for a variety of legally defensible positions on a single issue.
The First and the Fourteenth Amendments Although education is considered a
establishment clause A constitutional provision that prohibits the establishment of a government-sanctioned religion. free exercise clause A constitutional provision that protects rights of free speech and expression.
state responsibility, it has produced an abundance of federal litigation, particularly in connection with the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. The First Amendment concerns freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, and the right “to petition the government for redress of grievances.” Many First Amendment cases have dealt with the role of religion in public education and with the extent of protection guaranteed to freedom of expression by students and teachers. Two First Amendment clauses are frequently cited in lawsuits: the establishment clause, which prohibits the establishment of a government-sanctioned religion, and the free exercise clause, which protects rights of free speech and expression. To interpret these clauses, the courts generally use the criteria, or “tests,” shown in Figure 9.1. 2 Some case citations in this chapter include the term cert. denied. This means that the losing parties petitioned the US Supreme Court for review, but their request was denied.
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