Which case established the Lemon test for evaluating government actions regarding religion?

• A. Employment Division v. Smith
• B. Lemon v. Kurtzman
• C. Garcetti v. Ceballos
• D. Katz v. United States

Answer: (B)

When courts review government actions regarding religion, they use a test that asks three important questions: does the action have a secular purpose, does its primary effect neither advance nor inhibit religion, and does it avoid excessive entanglement between government and religious institutions. This framework was created in Lemon v. Kurtzman, a 1971 decision. In that case, the Court struck down state statutes because they failed one or more of those requirements, showing how the Establishment Clause is applied to ensure government action remains neutral toward religion.

Understanding these three parts helps you see why an action falls under constitutional scrutiny rather than relying on goodwill or intent alone. The other cases you might see in this list involve different constitutional issues—one concerns how neutral laws of general applicability affect religious practice, another deals with government employee speech, and another with privacy in searches. They illustrate related but separate constitutional doctrines, not the establishment-and-entanglement framework established by Lemon v. Kurtzman.

So, the case that established this test for evaluating government actions regarding religion is Lemon v. Kurtzman.