Gov Case Quiz: 1&2
Reynolds v. United States
1878
Cantwell v. Connecticut
1940
Everton vs. Board of education of Ewing township
1946
Engle v. Vitale
1962
Abington School district v. Schempp
1963
Lemon vs. Kurtzman
1972
Wisconsin v. Yoder
1972
Wallace v. Jaffree
1985
Employment Division (Oregon v. Smith)
1989
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah
1993
Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow
2004
Van Orden v. Perry
2005
Did the Pennsylvania law and Abington's policy, requiring public school students to participate in classroom religious exercises, violate the religious freedom of students as protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments?
Abington School district v. Schempp
What case involved Bible-reading in Pennsylvania public schools.
Abington School district v. Schempp
Did the solicitation statute or the "breach of the peace" ordinance violate the Cantwells' First Amendment free speech or free exercise rights?
Cantwell v. Connecticut
What case involved Jesse Cantwell and his son were Jehovah's Witnesses; they were proselytizing a predominantly Catholic neighborhood in Connecticut. The Cantwells distributed religious materials by travelling door-to-door and by approaching people on the street. After voluntarily hearing an anti-Roman Catholic message on the Cantwells' portable phonograph, two pedestrians reacted angrily. The Cantwells were subsequently arrested for violating a local ordinance requiring a permit for solicitation and for inciting a breach of the peace.
Cantwell v. Connecticut
Did the city of Hialeah's ordinance, prohibiting ritual animal sacrifices, violate the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause?
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah
What case involved a practiced the Afro-Caribbean-based religion of Santeria. Santeria used animal sacrifice as a form of worship in which an animal's carotid arteries would be cut and, except during healing and death rights, the animal would be eaten. Shortly after the announcement of the establishment of a Santeria church in Hialeah, Florida, the city council adopted several ordinances addressing religious sacrifice. The ordinances prohibited possession of animals for sacrifice or slaughter, with specific exemptions for state-licensed activities.
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah
Does Michael Newdow have standing to challenge as unconstitutional a public school district policy that requires teachers to lead willing students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? Does a public school district policy that requires teachers to lead willing students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, which includes the words "under God," violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?
Elk Grove United School District v. Newdow
What case involved making students listen - even if they choose not to participate - to the words "under God" violates the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
Elk Grove United School District v. Newdow
What case involved students voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words "under God" added by a 1954 Congressional act
Elk Grove United School District v. Newdow
Can a state deny unemployment benefits to a worker fired for using illegal drugs for religious purposes?
Employment Division (Oregon v. Smith)
What case involved Two Native Americans who worked as counselors for a private drug rehabilitation organization, ingested peyote -- a powerful hallucinogen -- as part of their religious ceremonies as members of the Native American Church. As a result of this conduct, the rehabilitation organization fired the counselors.
Employment Division (Oregon v. Smith)
What case involved the counselors filed a claim for unemployment compensation. The government denied them benefits because the reason for their dismissal was considered work-related "misconduct.
Employment Division (Oregon v. Smith)
Does the reading of a nondenominational prayer at the start of the school day violate the "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment?
Engel v. Vitale
What case involved The Board of Regents for the State of New York authorized a short, voluntary prayer for recitation at the start of each school day?
Engel v. Vitale
What case involved in the attempt to defuse the politically potent issue by taking it out of the hands of local communities?
Engel v. Vitale
What case was the first in a series of cases in which the Court used the establishment clause to eliminate religious activities of all sorts, which had traditionally been a part of public ceremonies?
Engel v. Vitale
Amendment Involved/ Clause: (Everton vs. Board of education of Ewing township)
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
Amendment Involved/ Clause: (Lemon vs. Kurtzman)
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
Did the New Jersey statute violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment?
Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing
What case involved A New Jersey law allowed reimbursements of money to parents who sent their children to school on buses operated by the public transportation system. Children who attended Catholic schools also qualified for this transportation subsidy?
Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing
Amendment Involved/ Clause: (Wallace v. Jaffree)
First Amendment's Establishment Clause
Amendment Involved/ Clause (Cantwell v. Connecticut )
Free Expression
Amendment Involved/ Clause (Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah)
Free Expression
Amendment Involved/ Clause (Reynolds v. United States)
Free Expression
Amendment Involved/ Clause (Van Orden v. Perry)
Free Expression
Amendment Involved/ Clause (Wisconsin v. Yoder)
Free Expression
Amendment Involved/ Clause Employment Division (Oregon v. Smith)
Free Expression
What was the court ruling in Wisconsin v. Yoder
In a unamimous decision, the Court held that individual's interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State's interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade. In the majority opinion by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, the Court found that the values and programs of secondary school were "in sharp conflict with the fundamental mode of life mandated by the Amish religion," and that an additional one or two years of high school would not produce the benefits of public education cited by Wisconsin to justify the law.Justice William O. Douglas filed a partial dissent but joined with the majority regarding Yoder.
Did the Rhode Island and Pennsylvania statutes violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by making state financial aid available to "church-related educational institutions"?
Lemon v. Kurtzman
What case involved Rhode Island statute provided direct supplemental salary payments to teachers in non-public elementary schools. Each statute made aid available to "church-related educational institutions."
Lemon v. Kurtzman
What case involved controversies over laws in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania, a statute provided financial support for teacher salaries, textbooks, and instructional materials for secular subjects to non-public schools?
Lemon v. Kurtzman
What was the ruling of the Supreme Court?
The Court determined the constitutionality of Alabama's prayer and meditation statute by applying the secular purpose test, which asked if the state's actual purpose was to endorse or disapprove of religion
What was the ruling in the Abington School district v. Schempp?
The Court found such a violation. The required activities encroached on both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment since the readings and recitations were essentially religious ceremonies and were "intended by the State to be so."
Supreme Court ruling on Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing
The New Jersey law reimbursing parents for transportation costs to parochial schools did not violate the Establishment Clause
What was the court ruling in Lemon v. Kurtzman
The Rhode Island statute is unconstitutional under the religion clause of First Amendment for excessive entanglement of state and church.
What was the ruling in Cantwell v. Connecticut
The local ordinance requiring a permit to solicit violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment
True/ False by providing the prayer in the Engel v. Vitale, New York officially approved religion.
True
True/ False: in the Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing case did Catholic School children qualify for the transportation subsidy?
True
True/False in the Abington School district v. Schempp At the beginning of the school day, students who attended public schools in the state of Pennsylvania were required to read at least ten verses from the Bible
True
True/False in the Wallace v. Jaffree case, The Court held that Alabama's passage of the prayer and meditation statute was not only a deviation from the state's duty to maintain absolute neutrality toward religion, but was an affirmative endorsement of religion.
True
True/False in the case Abington School district v. Schempp After completing these readings, school authorities required all Abington Township students to recite the Lord's Prayer.
True
True/False: in the Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing, was a New Jersey law under question?
True
If the government invokes privilege to withhold information in civil proceedings, must the trial court view the point on which evidence is withheld in the plaintiff's favor?
United States v. Reynolds
What case involved An airplane carrying several military personnel and several civilians crashed while conducting tests of "secret electronic equipment." The widows of the three civilians killed sued and asked for full disclosure of the Air Force's accident investigation report. The report included information pertaining to the secret electronic equipment. The Air Force refused to provide the information, saying that to do so would threaten national security. Absent the report, the District Court and Court of Appeals viewed the question of negligence in the widow's favor and ruled for the plaintiffs.
United States v. Reynolds
Does a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of a state capitol building violate the First Amendment's establishment clause, which barred the government from passing laws "respecting an establishment of religion?"
Van Orden v. Perry
True/False, the Van Orden v. Perry case involved monument served a valid secular purpose and would not appear to a reasonable observer to represent a government endorsement of religion
Van Orden v. Perry
What case involved Thomas Van Orden sued Texas in federal district court, arguing a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state capitol building represented an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. Orden argued this violated the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits the government from passing laws "respecting an establishment of religion."
Van Orden v. Perry
Did Alabama law violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause?
Wallace v. Jaffree
What case involved an Alabama law authorized teachers to conduct regular religious prayer services and activities in school classrooms during the school day?
Wallace v. Jaffree
Did Wisconsin's requirement that all parents send their children to school at least until age 16 violate the First Amendment by criminalizing the conduct of parents who refused to send their children to school for religious reasons?
Wisconsin v. Yoder
What case involved were prosecuted under a Wisconsin law that required all children to attend public schools until age 16. The three parents refused to send their children to such schools after the eighth grade, arguing that high school attendance was contrary to their religious beliefs.
Wisconsin v. Yoder
Justification for the Cantwell v. Connecticut
Yes. In a unanimous decision, the Court held that while general regulations on solicitation were legitimate, restrictions based on religious grounds were not. Because the statute allowed local officials to determine which causes were religious and which ones were not, it violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court also held that while the maintenance of public order was a valid state interest, it could not be used to justify the suppression of "free communication of views." The Cantwells' message, while offensive to many, did not entail any threat of "bodily harm" and was protected religious speech
Court ruling on Employment Division (Oregon v. Smith)
Yes. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, observed that the Court has never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that government is free to regulate.
What was the court ruling of Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah
Yes. The Court held that the ordinances were neither neutral nor generally applicable. The ordinances had to be justified by a compelling governmental interest and they had to be narrowly tailored to that interest. The core failure of the ordinances were that they applied exclusively to the church. The ordinances singled out the activities of the Santeria faith and suppressed more religious conduct than was necessary to achieve their stated ends. Only conduct tied to religious belief was burdened. The ordinances targeted religious behavior, therefore they failed to survive the rigors of strict strutiny.
Amendment Involved/ Clause: (Enable v. Vitale)
clause of the First Amendment Religious Freedom
What did the law in the case of Everson v.Board of Education of the Township of Ewing do?
law enacted as a "general program" to assist parents of all religions with getting their children to school
Amendment Involved/ Clause: (Abington School district v. Schempp)
religious freedom as protected by the First and Fourteenth
Justification for the Everson v.Board of Education of the Township of Ewing
services like bussing and police and fire protection for parochial schools are "separate and so indisputably marked off from the religious function" that for the state to provide them would not violate the First Amendment
Amendment Involved/ Clause: (Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow)
the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
Court's ruling in Elk Grove United School District v. Newdow
the Supreme Court found that Newdow did not have standing to bring suit because he did not have sufficient custody over his daughter. (Did not make a decision)
In the case Abington School district v. Schempp, what was the ruling on the notes?
the ability of a parent to excuse a child from these ceremonies by a written note was irrelevant since it did not prevent the school's actions from violating the Establishment Clause.
How could students in the Abington School district v. Schempp could get out of the exercises?
Students could be excluded from these exercises by a written note from their parents to the school.
Ruling in the Van Orden v. Perry
No. In 5-4 decision, and in a four-justice opinion delivered by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the Court held that the establishment clause did not bar the monument on the grounds of Texas' state capitol building. The plurality deemed the Texas monument part of the nation's tradition of recognizing the Ten Commandments' historical meaning. Though the Commandments are religious, the plurality argued, "simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the establishment clause."
True/ False: in the Everson v. Board of Education, parents who took kids to school got a subsidy
False
What was the Supreme Court ruling in Engel v. Vitale?
Neither the prayer's nondenominational character nor its voluntary character saves it from unconstitutionality.
What was the court ruling in United States v. Reynolds
No. In a 6-3 opinion by Chief Justice Fred Vinson, the court held that cause for privilege must be reasonably demonstrated. As a result, the government may withhold information for reasons of national security even when that information is vital to the plaintiff's case. On remand, the plaintiffs lost.