POSC150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: De Facto, Strict Scrutiny, Lemon V. Kurtzman

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POSC150
• Professor: Philip Edward Jones

Document Summary

Civil liberties and civil rights: declaration of independence. Due process are certain procedural rules that the government guarantees his citizens. Separation of church and state (no where in the first amendment) Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion: example: congress cannot pass a law saying christianity is the official religion of the united states. 2 viewpoints: separationists: religion private, government stays out completely, accomodationist: government should accommodate religious behavior, without showing preference for one religion. Lemon test- disjunctive test: government can make a law about religion if: Is the primary purpose to advance or inhibit a religion. It doesn"t foster excessive government entanglements with religion- supreme court must deem it as excessive to be excessive. Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof: government can"t say that you can"t practice a certain religion. Sherbert refused to work on saturdays because it was her holy day, she was fired, appied for unemployment benefits.