Sloan v. Lemon

Sloan v. Lemon (1973) was the last of three related church-state cases that the U.S. Supreme Court considered between 1971 and 1973. At issue in Sloan was whether the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania could reimburse parents for the tuition that they paid to send their children to religiously affiliated nonpublic schools. Based on its earlier judgment in Lemon v. Kurtzman (Lemon I) in 1971, in Sloan, the Court held that the statute permitting reimbursement was unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, because it impermissibly advanced religion. Knowledge of the facts in Lemon I is essential in understanding the Court's subsequent decision in Sloan.

In Lemon I, the Supreme Court first articulated its now-famous Lemon test, a three-pronged standard for use by the courts in ...