- Establishment Clause & Lemon Test
Establishment Clause is a clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution that states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It forbids the government from favoring, promoting, or supporting any religion.
The Lemon Test is named after the Supreme Court case Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) and is used to determine whether a law or government action violates the Establishment Clause. The test has three parts:
The law must have a secular purpose (not religious).
The primary effect of the law must not advance nor inhibit religion.
The law must not result in excessive government entanglement with religion.
If a law infringes any of these three tests, the law is unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause.
- Flag Burning & the First Amendment
Yes, flag burning is protected under the First Amendment as free speech. The leading Supreme Court case confirming this protection is Texas v. Johnson (1989).
In this case, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag as a protest against the Reagan administration. He was arrested under a Texas law banning flag desecration, but the Supreme Court ruled that the law violated his First Amendment rights. The Court held that burning the flag was a form of symbolic speech, and the government could not prohibit it just because it was offensive.
