Lemon v. Kurtzman

Pennsylvania reimbursed nonpublic (including church-related) schools for teacher salaries, textbooks, and instructional materials used in secular subjects; Rhode Island similarly paid nonpublic-school teachers a 15 percent salary supplement, conditioned on teaching only secular subjects with public-school materials and agreeing not to teach religion while receiving the supplement. Lemon and other Pennsylvania taxpayers (plaintiffs) challenged the Pennsylvania statute; the district court dismissed that challenge but struck down the Rhode Island statute in a companion case, and the Supreme Court reviewed both.