The Establishment Clause and Free Exercise precedents that structure Nathan, each with a citation, a one-line holding, and a note on its role in the case. Filter by doctrinal status: alive (still good law), abrogated (displaced by Kennedy and its progeny), pivotal (doing real work in Nathan), or contested (disputed within the opinion).
A public-school football coach's post-game midfield prayer was protected Free Exercise. The Court declared Lemon "long ago abandoned" and directed Establishment Clause analysis to "historical practices and understandings."
Established the three-part Establishment Clause test: secular purpose, primary effect neither advancing nor inhibiting religion, and no excessive government entanglement.
Struck down Kentucky's mandate that the Ten Commandments be posted in every public-school classroom. Held the statute lacked a secular purpose; no legislative recitation could "blind" courts to that fact.
Justice Gorsuch's concurrence articulated six hallmarks of a founding-era religious establishment: (i) government control over the doctrine and personnel of an established church; (ii) mandated attendance and punishment for failing to participate; (iii) punishment of dissenting churches and individuals; (iv) restriction of political participation by dissenters; (v) financial support for the established church; and (vi) use of the established church to carry out civil functions.
Incorporated the Establishment Clause against the States and revived Jefferson's "wall of separation between Church and State." Upheld public reimbursement of parochial-school bus fares.
Struck down New York's "Regents' Prayer" — a state-composed nondenominational prayer recited daily in public schools. State-composed prayer violates the Establishment Clause even if participation is voluntary.
Struck down state-mandated Bible reading and Lord's Prayer recitation in public schools. Announced the "secular purpose / primary effect" test that would become Lemon's first two prongs.
Struck down clergy-led prayer at a public-school graduation. Recognized that coercion in the school context is "subtle and indirect" — the pressure to conform is enough.
Struck down student-led, student-initiated prayer broadcast over a high-school football stadium's PA system. Extended the school-prayer line beyond classrooms.
"The clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another." Denominational preferences trigger strict scrutiny.
Expressly reaffirmed Larson v. Valente's denominational-neutrality principle and applied strict scrutiny to a Wisconsin unemployment-insurance exemption that drew lines among religious groups.
Held that Maryland parents were entitled under Free Exercise to opt their children out of "LGBTQ+-inclusive" classroom instruction. The Court reasoned, quoting Wisconsin v. Yoder, that government burdens parents' religious exercise when it requires them to submit children to instruction posing "a very real threat of undermining" their religious beliefs and practices.
Upheld sectarian legislative prayers at town-council meetings based on "historical practices and understandings" and the adult-deliberative-body context.
Upheld the Bladensburg Cross, a 32-foot Latin cross on public land. Long-standing religious "monuments, symbols, and practices" carry a "strong presumption of constitutionality."
Lower federal courts must follow directly on-point Supreme Court precedent even if it "appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions." Only the Supreme Court may overrule its own cases.
Justice O'Connor's "endorsement test": the Establishment Clause forbids government action that a reasonable observer would read as endorsing or disapproving of religion.
Struck down Ten Commandments displays in county courthouses because their predominant purpose was religious, notwithstanding a later-added "historical context" frame.
The case brief walks opinion-by-opinion through exactly how each precedent above is used or distinguished.
→Part II of the essay tells the story these cases share — from Everson's Wall to Kennedy's demolition order.