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Question 1

When is the court likely to uphold government student assistance programs?

Answer 1

When they are viewed as aid to individual students and their parents instead of aid to religious schools.

Question 2

What are the factors that are used to determine if a government program has a primary effect of advancing religion with regard to schools?

Answer 2

– teachers that teach there can purposefully or inadvertently indoctrinate students with particular religious beliefs
– impressionable kids can view the program as a crucial symbolic link between government and religion because the government is seen as supporting the religious denomination that sponsors the school
– program could have the effect of directly promoting religion by providing a government subsidy to the primary religious mission of the school

Question 3

Is it OK for a government to share secular textbooks with religious schools?

Answer 3

Yes, because no religious purpose is being served since it is meant to help students and not to advance religion

Question 4

Is the government allowed to subsidize teacher salaries for those that teach at religious schools?

Answer 4

No because this would be a direct aid to religion

Question 5

Can the government aid schools that discriminate based on race?

Answer 5

No. They cannot loan textbooks to these schools, and the only thing that the government has to do for these schools is accommodate them by not making their existence illegal and by providing fire and police protection.

Question 6

Is it possible for students to get religious instruction on public school grounds?

Answer 6

No, but kids can be released and go and get religious instruction somewhere else.

Question 7

Is it possible for religion and religious literature like the Bible to be studied in a public school?

Answer 7

Yes, but only for purely academic reasons

Question 8

Is it possible for a state to eliminate teaching certain ideas from the curriculum because they conflict with religious beliefs?

Answer 8

If the reason for eliminating this is because of religious reasons, the state cannot do it. If the reason is not religious, then it is OK

Question 9

Is it permissible for a government to reimburse parochial schools for expenses from the administration and scoring of standardized tests and reporting that data?

Answer 9

Yes, because this has a secular purpose.

Question 10

Is it permissible for the government to provide a deaf student with an aid if he goes to religious school?

Answer 10

Yes, because the program is meant to give benefits to a broad class of citizens regardless of religion. The benefit to religion in this case is only incidental, and the program is neutral government aid not to schools, but to individual handicapped children

Question 11

Can the government give grants to religious hospitals?

Answer 11

Yes, because they have an independent secular function. As long as the hospital being aided is not so pervasively sectarian as to subsume its role as a medical center, the hospital can get state aid

Question 12

What is the test that you should apply when the government gives aid to religious universities or colleges?

Answer 12

The lemon test. This figures out if the government’s aid for a religious university has the primary effect of advancing religion. The university’s secular function must not be permeated with a religious atmosphere, and there must be assurances by the University and the government that the aid will not be used for religious teaching or activities.

I.e.: this is upheld when the money is given to the university to build facilities for something other than religious instruction

Question 13

If an aid program to a religious school is held to be invalid, is it necessary that the payments made to the school by the government before invalidation must be returned?

Answer 13

Not always. Consider these factors:
– the reasonableness and degree of reliance by the institution on the payments
– the necessity of refunds to protect the constitutional rights that are involved

Question 14

When it comes to a government providing aid to a religious institution, courts are more tolerant of aid programs that do what?

Answer 14

Give benefits to citizens instead of the institution

Question 15

Does every entanglement between government and religion advance or inhibit religion?

Answer 15

No, so that is why the requirement is that the entanglement be excessive in order to violate the establishment clause.

Ie: The government can provide remedial instruction by public employees to disadvantaged kids on religious school premises without endorsing religion

Question 16

Is it proper for the government to give veto power to churches to stop liquor licenses from being issued within 500 feet of a church?

Answer 16

No, that is invalid because it promotes religious instead of secular ends. That gives the church government power to promote religion and is considered to be an excessive entanglement

Question 17

How can history be used as a rationale to support religion by the government?

Answer 17

If the government can show that the practice has historically happened without danger of eroding government neutrality for religion, it can be upheld.

Ie: Texas was allowed to keep a monument of the 10 Commandments on the State Capitol grounds because of the nation’s history and tradition of dealing with religion it was considered as one part of a large set of monuments and historical markers related to the foundations of the US and Texas law

Question 18

If government aid isn’t going to violate the establishment clause, what has to happen?

Answer 18

It must be given according to neutral criteria and it must be secular in content.

Question 19

When is it OK for the government to give money to a religious school?

Answer 19

Only if it is going to a completely secular purpose that isn’t in the control of the school

Question 20

Why is it not OK to have a prayer before a public high school football game that is piped over the PA system?

Answer 20

It makes the prayer essentially authorized by the government since it happens on government property at a government sponsored school activity. Even if the students vote to have the prayer, it is still viewed as stamped with the government’s approval and the state cannot force students to choose between facing a religious message they don’t want to hear and going to a game. Even if the prayer is nondenominational that shows a preference for religion over non-religion. This is especially not OK if minors are involved. Students can pray on their own, but it cannot be an activity led by the school.

Question 21

Is it OK for the state to vest substantial government powers in religious institutions?

Answer 21

No, that is considered to be an excessive entanglement

Question 22

Are Sunday closing laws considered to be OK under freedom of religion?

Answer 22

Yes

Question 23

Why is “ceremonial deism“ allowed? This means things like nativity scenes, the designation of “in God we trust“ as a national motto, or referencing God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Answer 23

Because they have lost, through rote repetition, any significant religious content. This also includes legislative prayers, prayers of presidential inaugurations, presidential addresses that invoke the name of God, oaths that use the Bible, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, national Day of prayer, etc.