Lemon Test

Examples of Lemon Test in the following topics:

• The Establishment Clause: Separation of Church and State

  • In Lemon v.
  • Kurtzman (1971), the Court created a three part test for laws dealing with religious establishment.

• [PF content: Withstanding the Test of Time]

• The No Child Left Behind Act

  • Schools receiving Title I funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 must make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in test scores (each year, its fifth graders must do better on standardized tests than the previous year's fifth graders).
  • The yearly standardized tests are the main means of determining whether schools are living up to the standards that they are required to meet.
  • Critics have argued that the focus on standardized testing as the means of assessment encourages teachers to teach a narrow subset of skills that the teacher believes will increase test performance, rather than focus on acquiring deep understanding of the full, broad curriculum.
  • This is colloquially referred to as "teaching to the test. "
  • The system of incentives and penalties sets up a strong motivation for schools, districts and states to manipulate test results.

• Nuclear Weapons

  • The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons—and that acknowledge possessing such weapons—are (chronologically by date of first test) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.
  • Since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for testing purposes and demonstrations.
  • By the 1960s, steps were being taken to limit both the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other countries and the environmental effects of nuclear testing.
  • The Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963) restricted all nuclear testing to underground facilities, to prevent contamination from nuclear fallout, while the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968) attempted to place restrictions on the types of activities signatories could participate in, with the goal of allowing the transference of non-military nuclear technology to member countries without fear of proliferation.

• The Supreme Court Revisits Affirmative Action

  • After the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the company removed the racial restriction, but retained the high school diploma requirement, and added the requirement of an IQ test, with the racist belief that African Americans would score lower than whites on an IQ test.
  • The Supreme Court ruled that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, if the IQ and diploma tests disparately impacted ethnic minority groups, businesses must demonstrate that such tests are "reasonably related" to the job for which the test is required.

• Controversies Surrounding Affirmative Action

  • Opponents have tested affirmative action programs politically and legally through referendums and lawsuits since the 1970s.
  • Since the 1970s, affirmative action programs, particularly those in higher education, have been tested politically and legally by its opponents.
  • Some opponents have tested the bases for affirmative action programs on the basis of class inequality.
  • Other opponents have tested affirmative action by arguing that these programs lower admission standards for educational and professional environments and stating that affirmative action is a form of reverse racism, by which Caucasians are disadvantaged in the same way that minorities were in the past.

• Strict Scrutiny

  • Judges apply strict scrutiny tests when a case regarding affirmative action come before them.
  • In other words, in order to determine the constitutionality of the contested program, the judge must determine whether or not the program meets the standards of a strict scrutiny test.
  • To meet these standards, the law or program must satisfy three tests:
  • Describe the three tests a law faces under a strict scrutiny standard

• The Civil Rights Acts

  • Specifically, the Act outlawed the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literary tests to register to vote.
  • Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibits states and local governments from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. " Specifically, Congress intended the Act to outlaw the practice of requiring otherwise qualified voters to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote, a principal means by which Southern states had prevented African Americans from exercising the franchise.
  • It also eliminated literacy tests as a precondition for voting, effectively removing barriers to African American voter registration.

• Income Security Policy and Policy Making

  • Means-tested benefits.
  • Several countries have special schemes, administered with no requirement for contributions and no means test, for people in certain categories of need (for example, veterans of armed forces, people with disabilities, and very old people).
  • These are non-contributory benefits given to whole sections of the population without a test of means or need, such as family allowances or the public pension in New Zealand (known as New Zealand Superannuation).

• Article VI

  • The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.