Under the Lemon test, which prong would be violated if salary supplements are provided to teachers in private schools up to ten percent of their salaries, with the rule that no supplements go to teachers who instruct in religious subjects?

Under the Lemon test, which prong would be violated if salary supplements are provided to teachers in private schools up to ten percent of their salaries, with the rule that no supplements go to teachers who instruct in religious subjects?

• A. It would violate the first prong because of improper sectarian purpose.
• B. It would violate the second prong because the supplements are not narrowly tailored.
• C. It would violate the third prong (excessive entanglement).
• D. It would pass all Lemon test prongs.

Answer: (C)

Under the Lemon test, the third prong bars government actions that amount to excessive entanglement with religion. In this scenario, the government would pay salary supplements to private-school teachers but only if they teach secular subjects, excluding those who teach religious subjects. To enforce this, the state would have to monitor and determine what counts as religious instruction versus secular instruction, and continually oversee curriculum and staffing decisions to ensure compliance. That ongoing oversight of religious education ties the government into church-state issues and represents the kind of entanglement Lemon prohibits. The purpose is likely secular and the effect could be neutral, but the required monitoring of religious content creates excessive entanglement with religious schools, making the third prong the violated one.

Under the Lemon test, the third prong bars government actions that amount to excessive entanglement with religion. In this scenario, the government would pay salary supplements to private-school teachers but only if they teach secular subjects, excluding those who teach religious subjects. To enforce this, the state would have to monitor and determine what counts as religious instruction versus secular instruction, and continually oversee curriculum and staffing decisions to ensure compliance. That ongoing oversight of religious education ties the government into church-state issues and represents the kind of entanglement Lemon prohibits. The purpose is likely secular and the effect could be neutral, but the required monitoring of religious content creates excessive entanglement with religious schools, making the third prong the violated one.