Lemon Test In Public Schools

The U.S government provides the basic services for all its citizens, such as providing education to all children no matter what religion the child might follow. The government needs to make sure that the church and state are totally separated especially when it involves public schools. The government decided to create the Lemon Test, which ensures that the government cannot break the Establishment Clause. In the Lemon Test there are three basic prongs. First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster "an excessive government entanglement with religion." Another test the government started using was …show more content…
When looking at the case of Wallace vs Jaffree it shows that the three statutes of Alabama was including religion in a public school. The public schools must follow the three statutes. The first statute is a 1-minute period of silence in all public schools that can be consider for meditation. Second statute is to have an authorized period of silence that can be considered meditation or voluntary prayer. The third statute is to authorize teachers to lead "willing students" in a prescribed prayer that the government has created for the state. When the Lemon Test was applied to the case. The first prong of the Lemon test failed because there is no secular legislative purpose besides bringing voluntary prayer in a public school. It shows that the church and state should be separated because it encourages the government to enforce religion to be part of the classroom. When using the Coercion test for this case it shows issues can arise from this situation. Alabama public schools don’t force a child to take part in a moment of silence yet a child might feel uncomfortable. Young children might not understand that its ok if they don’t take part in the moment of silence. The students might feel they must take part in the voluntary prayer because majority of the students are taking part in this activity. The students might listen to the teachers because the students are always …show more content…
Donnelly it shows the importance of how to display religious decorations in a public location. The city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, annually erected a Christmas display located in the city's shopping district. The display included such objects as a Santa Claus house, a Christmas tree, a banner reading "Seasons Greetings," and a nativity scene. When looking at the situation there was nativity scene which had a lot of the main religious figures in Christianity. Daniel Donnelly objected to the display and took action against Dennis Lynch, the Mayor of Pawtucket. The U.S government decide that the display didn’t go against the Establishment Clause. The Court found that the display merely depicted the historical origins of the holiday. The government decided that it didn’t enforced religious ideas to the public. Since, there were many other holiday displays besides the crèche. When using the Endorsement Test, it seems that the judges felt that it was not only promoting religious figures, but joyful holidays characters as