Lemon V. Kurtzman 403 U.S. Term Paper

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The Court affirmed the District Court's decision holding the Rhode Island statute unconstitutional. The Court reversed the District Court's decision holding the Pennsylvania statute constitutional.

Reasoning: The Court developed a three-part test for determining the constitutionality of laws dealing with religious establishment. This test is now referred to as "the Lemon test." To be constitutional, a statute must:

have a secular, legislative purpose; have principal effects which neither advance nor inhibit religion; and it must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.

The Court then examined the statutes presented to determine whether they met the three-part test. The Court determined that providing funds to religious-based schools did advance a religious purpose. Furthermore, because both statutes required the states to provide funds only for the portion of the schooling that was strictly secular, they invited state-involvement in a religious-school setting, which could actually inhibit religion, resulting in an excessive government entanglement with religion.

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What seemed to sway the Court was that the legislatures of both states were not unaware of the danger of providing funding to church-related schools. They both recognized that church-related schools have a religious mission, but sought to create the funding legislation in a manner that would guarantee the separation between the church school's secular and religious functions. Because total separation between church and state is impossible, that is not the test; instead, the test is whether the two are excessively entangled. The Court found that the substantial religious nature of the schools in question….....

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