AP®︎ U.S. Government & Politics: Topic 3.2 Flashcards

First Amendment bar on government establishing an official religion or sponsoring, directing, favoring, or coercing participation in religious activity

First Amendment protection against government interference with religious belief and unjustified burdens or discrimination against religious practice

Common description of establishment-clause principles, associated with Jefferson’s “wall of separation” but not stated in the Constitution

Government may not sponsor or discriminate for or against religion, but may include religious individuals and organizations in generally available programs on neutral terms

Former test requiring a secular purpose, an effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and no excessive government entanglement with religion

Held that public schools may not sponsor an official prayer, even if it is nondenominational and participation is formally voluntary

Religious belief receives extremely strong protection, while religiously motivated conduct may be regulated and does not always receive an exemption

A law that neither targets religion nor selectively prohibits religious conduct while permitting comparable secular conduct; incidental religious burdens are ordinarily allowed

A government exemption, adjustment, or neutral inclusion that eases a burden on religious exercise without necessarily establishing religion

Held that Wisconsin could not require Amish children to attend school beyond eighth grade because the severe religious burden outweighed the state’s insufficiently justified interest