A Wall of Separation · Episode 6 of 14 · 54 min
The Lemon Test: The Rule That Governed Church and State for 50 Years
Lemon v. Kurtzman gave America a three-part test of secular purpose, primary effect and no entanglement. For fifty years courts applied it and justices ridiculed it while exceptions piled up. In 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton declared it abandoned and installed historical practices and understandings in its place.
Who's who
- Warren Burger+1 more episodeChief Justice who wrote Lemon and Marsh
- Alton LemonPennsylvania taxpayer who challenged parochial school aid
- Sandra Day O'Connor+5 more episodesJustice who developed the endorsement test
- Antonin Scalia+2 more episodesJustice who compared Lemon to a ghoul in a horror movie
- Anthony Kennedy+1 more episodeJustice who championed the coercion rationale
- Neil Gorsuch+5 more episodesJustice who wrote Kennedy v. Bremerton
- Sonia Sotomayor+3 more episodesJustice who dissented in Kennedy v. Bremerton
Where it happens
- Bremerton, WashingtonWhere a coach's post-game prayers produced the 2022 case
Timeline
- June 28, 1971Lemon v. Kurtzman creates the three-prong test
- 1983Marsh v. Chambers upholds legislative prayer on history grounds, outside Lemon
- 1984Lynch v. Donnelly upholds a Nativity scene; O'Connor proposes the endorsement test
- 1997Agostini v. Felton folds entanglement into the effect prong
- June 27, 2022Kennedy v. Bremerton declares Lemon abandoned, 6-3
Still debated
Scholars dispute whether Kennedy overruled Lemon or merely recognized it as already dead. The majority and dissent describe the Bremerton prayers very differently, and whether history and tradition is more principled than Lemon is open.
← PreviousHow School Prayer Ended: Engel v. Vitale and Abington v. SchemppNext →How White Evangelicals Moved From Democrat to Republican
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