What standards did the Lemon test use to evaluate establishment clause cases?

The "Lemon test" was a three-prong standard established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1971 case Lemon v. Kurtzman to determine whether a government action or law violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.12

To be considered constitutional under this test, a law had to meet all three of the following criteria:

• Secular Purpose: The law must have a legitimate secular purpose.13
• Neutral Effect: The law must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion.13
• No Excessive Entanglement: The law must not result in an excessive entanglement between government and religion.13

While the test was used for decades to adjudicate establishment clause cases, it was often criticized for being vague and difficult to apply consistently. The Supreme Court explicitly rejected the Lemon test in 2022.42