Legal Case: "Lynch v Donnelly"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains the circumstances, which lead to the suit by the American Civil Liberties Union claiming that the Christmas display in the town of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was violating the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution because the display was stored and owned by the city government and thereby clearly sponsoring religion. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, the author relates, in a 5-4 vote, in this case known as "Lynch v Donnelly", that the city be allowed to keep the display because it was merely celebrating the history of the holiday season not pushing religion. The paper proceeds to investigate the basis for this decision especially the "lemon test".

From the Paper:

"In 1971, because citizen taxpayers in Rhode Island were the providers of this state funding, they brought suit to have the act declared unconstitutional and violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. Fighting against them were state-officials who started the act, teachers who were eligible for the salary increase, and parents of children in parochial schools.
"This had happened before. The state of Pennsylvania has also adopted a program that has some of the features of the Rhode Island act."

Sample of Sources Used:

• http://http://law.jrank.org/pages/12609/Lynch-v-Donnelly.html
• http://atheism.about.com/library/decisions/holydays/bldec_LynchDonnelly.htm
• http://openjurist.org/465/us/668/lynch-v-donnelly
• http://answers.com/Q/Why_was_the_US_Constitution_written
• http://www.illinoisfirstamendmentcenter.com/history.php

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