Establishment Clause Flashcards
Governmental action will pass muster under the Establishment Clause if it is neutral with regard to religion.
If it is not neutral, it will be evaluated based on historical practice and whether the Founding Fathers would have considered it acceptable.
State action can be found because of the city’s significant involvement in the apartment building at issue.
(The city is leasing the building to the church, the church shares profits with the city, and the church submitted its lease forms to the city for approval.)
To provide low-cost housing to the unemployed, a city has a policy of leasing empty city-owned buildings to social agencies that promise to convert or rehabilitate the buildings into habitable, low-cost apartments and to pay the city 10% of any net profit made from rentals. A church entered into such an agreement with the city and converted one of the city’s abandoned office buildings into 50 small, low-cost apartments. The lease agreement used by the church provides, among other things, that the lessee must affirm a belief in God. The lease agreement was submitted to the city for approval prior to its use by the church, and it was approved.
If the plaintiff brings suit against the church on the ground that the required affirmation of a belief in God violates the plaintiff’s constitutional rights, who likely will prevail?
The plaintiff, because the church’s policy results in a violation of the Establishment Clause.
Establishment Clause test
The Establishment Clause inquiry focuses on neutrality, historical practice, and whether the Founding Fathers would have considered the action involved acceptable.
The Court will not assess the centrality of religious belief but will only inquire into whether a person’s belief is sincere and whether the government action targets that belief.
Neutral law of general application
Applies when: the government action does not target religious practice.
A religiously neutral law of general application may validly proscribe general conduct; i.e., a law of general application will not be held invalid under the First Amendment merely because it happens to proscribe conduct that is required by one’s religious beliefs. Neither will the state be required to provide religious exemptions from the statute.
