Lemon Vs Kurtzman Case Study

Lemon v. Kurtzman , 403 U.S. 602 (1971)
Historical Setting
While Americans were under British control, they were forced to pay Anglican church taxes, attend church services, and follow church rules. After the Revolution, American forefathers conveyed their opposition to this British law through the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing freedom to practice religion. In 1968, Pennsylvania passed the Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act that permitted government taxes to partially fund religious private schools. Alton Lemon, a local social worker, sued David Kurtzman, Pennsylvania’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, for the new law’s infringement on civil rights. Lemon appealed the Federal District Court’s
Supreme Court considered the Lemon v. Kurtzman case simultaneously with two additional Rhode Island cases. After the Court reviewed the two state acts, Lemon argued that the Nonpublic Elementary and Secondary Education Act violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, claiming that such funding required an intimate relationship between the church and the state. In contrast, Kurtzman defended the constitutionality of the act, stating that refusal to fund the religious schools would be a violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
Court’s Decision
On June 28, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed and remanded the Pennsylvania case, ruling that according to the religion clauses included within the First Amendment, the state statute violated the Constitution. The Court proceeded to describe the separate, yet interdependent parts of determining establishment: having a nonreligious purpose, not primarily having an effect on religion, and not closely involving government and religion. The Court also cited Everson v. Board of Education and Walz v. Tax Commission when delivering its opinion.