First Amendment · WikiFramers

Freedom of Religion · Module 9

The Establishment Clause, Part I

Establishment: the Lemon test, its long decline, and the endorsement and coercion frameworks that competed to replace it.

Assigned reading

Chemerinsky, Constitutional Law (7th ed. 2023) — 1524–48.

The casebook is the assigned text for this course. This page is the map: what the Module is doing, in what order, and what goes with it.

Topics

What the Establishment Clause forbids; competing theories — strict separation, neutrality, accommodation. The Lemon test and the endorsement test. The turn to history and tradition. Religious speech and symbols on government property.

Reading list

0 of 9 readings published · the rest are in preparation and will appear here as they are edited

  1. Opinion Everson v. Board of Education in preparation
  2. Opinion Lemon v. Kurtzman in preparation
  3. Opinion Lynch v. Donnelly in preparation
  4. Opinion County of Allegheny v. ACLU in preparation
  5. Opinion Van Orden v. Perry in preparation
  6. Opinion McCreary County v. ACLU in preparation
  7. Opinion Town of Greece v. Galloway in preparation
  8. Opinion American Legion v. American Humanist Association in preparation
  9. Opinion Kennedy v. Bremerton School District in preparation

Classroom visuals

Slides for this module PDF

This module in Canvas

Modules · Quizzes · Discussion boards · Files and recordings

How to read this list

A case named without a marker is assigned as an opinion and is to be read in its entirety. Opinion (edited) means the Professor has cut it for length; the text on this site is the assigned text. Note means the case is not assigned as an opinion at all — its holding, its facts to the extent they matter, and its place in the doctrinal line are given in a note written for this course, and you are responsible for that note exactly as you are responsible for an assigned opinion. Most modules close with a Current case, a recent decision chosen because it shows the doctrine you have just read being applied at its live edge; current cases are assigned as opinions. You are responsible for all assigned required materials, including the notes, questions, problems and commentary that accompany the cases, whether or not we discuss them in class.