Case on First US Ammendment and Clauses

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution includes the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. These clauses instruct that legislature shall neither establish an official religion nor unnecessarily restrict the practice of any religion. U.S. Const. amend. I.
The Supreme Court has adopted a standard of neutrality to satisfy the Establishment Clause stating: neither federal or state government can enact laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another, and neither can force nor influence a person to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 15 (1947). The means that the Martin County Board cannot actively endorse any one particular religion over another and also cannot restrict any one particular religion. See Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 794, 795 (1983). It must remain religiously neutral. Id. at 795. The Martin County Board’s meeting practice of offering a prayer before its board meetings violates the Establishment Clause because they provided strong sectarian references in their invocations, endorsed Christianity, and coerced those in attendance to participate in the prayers.
A. The Lemon Test
The courts have used the three-prong test in the past, first articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, to determine the purpose, primary effect, and government entanglement in regard to religious and public entities. 403 U.S. 602, 613-14 (1971). In Lemon, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of law granting aid directly to private schools. Id. at 606-07. The Supreme Court held that the government must be entirely excluded from the area of religious instruction and churches excluded from the affairs of the government, which is now ref...

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...T AMENDMENT BECAUSE THE PRAYERS GIVEN BEFORE EACH MEETING SHOWED ENDORSEMENT AND COERCION OF A PARTICULAR FAITH.

Anne Dhaliwal is warranted in objecting the Martin County Board’s opening legislative

because Lemon and its progeny forbid the endorsement or coercion of any religion with the effect of associating the government with any one particular belief or faith. Cnty of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 U.S. 573, 604 (1989). However, Allegheny does allow legislative prayers if they are nonsectarian. Id. at 631. Because the Martin County Board’s legislative prayers significantly referenced Christianity and their refusal to address to Mrs. Dhaliwal’s request to void the prayer invocations of any sectarian reference, the Martin County Board practices violated Mrs. Dhaliwal’s constitutional rights under the First Amendment.