Freedom of Religion: Crash Course U.S.

Government #24
Available at https://youtu.be/Y8dI1GTWCk4 or just youtube/google “Crash Course US Government 24”
1. Jurisprudence means all the important
cases on a particular topic.

2. The Constitution deals with religion in the

First Amendment, which is also the one that
deals with speech and the press and assembly and
petitions.

3. How does the establishment cause differ from

free exercise?
Establishment cause is the cause that prohibits the
government from “establishing” a religion while free
exercise protects citizens’ right to practice their
religion as they please, so long as the practice does
not run afoul of a “public morals” or a “compelling
government interest.”

4. The Supreme Court in Lemon vs. Kurtzman devised a three prong test to see if the state
law violated the First Amendment religious freedom clauses.

a. Under the first prong, the Court looks to see whether the law in question has a
secular legislative purpose.

b. Under the second prong, the Court examines whether or not the law’s principal or
primary effect neither enhances nor inhibits religion.

c. The third prong requires that the law under consideration does not create excessive
entanglement between a church and the state

d. What the ruling in this case meant was that the secular purpose, educating children,
was not going to happen, or at least it would be made more difficult.

e. Some states have tried to get around this by

having the prayers led by students,
because they aren’t agents of the state.

5. The Lemon test is an attempt by the Court

to set up a framework for analyzing future situations
where religion and the state might get mixed up.

6. How does a “bright-line” rule differ from a

“fine line” rule?
A bright-line rule is a standard with no alternative interpretation whereas fine line testing involves balancing
tests to come to a decision.