« Justice Dept. Backs Religious School Choice in Case on Maine Tuition Program | Main | Supreme Court Backs Federal Agencies’ Power to Interpret Their Own Rules » Washington The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 94-year-old cross memorializing a Maryland county’s World War I dead, but stopped short of overruling the so-called Lemon test for evaluating government interaction with religion. In multiple opinions in the 7-2 decision allowing the Bladensburg Peace Cross to remain, a majority of justices suggested the test from the 1971 case of Lemon v. Kurtzman had little viability remaining. Under that three-part test, courts must examine whether government action regarding religion had a secular purpose, had the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, or created an excessive entanglement with religion. "If the Lemon Court thought that its test would provide a framework for all future establishment clause decisions, its expectation has not been met," Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in the main opinion in American Legion v. American Humanist Association (Case No. 17-1717), parts of which were a mere plurality of four justices, and much of which was joined by a total of five justices. Alito said the Lemon test presents […]
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