The Lemon Test explained
In the 1971 Supreme Court case Lemon v. Kurtzmann, the Court established a test to determine whether legislation violates the Constitution’s establishment clause. This test was called the Lemon Test and has been used in numerous cases to determine the constitutionality of state actions that bear upon religion. The Lemon Test has three prongs, each a requirement for state action to be deemed constitutional under the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution: (1) the law must have a secular purpose, (2) the primary effect of the law must not infringe on or promote religion, and (3) the law should not unduly entangle government with religion.
In the controversial Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton, the Supreme Court ruled that a public high school football coach could pray on the field without violating the First Amendment's establishment clause. In making its determination, however, the Court did not use or even mention the once popular Lemon Test. Instead, the majority deployed a new test, the "historical practices and traditions test." While Lemon was not explicitly overturned, Bremerton has left some legal scholars to speculate that the once popular Lemon Test is now dead.
