Lynch v Donnelly and the Endorsement Test

Abstract

This brief Article discusses Lynch v. Donnelly, where the Court, addressing for the first time the constitutionality of a governmental display of a religious symbol, held that a city did not violate the Establishment Clause by including a creche in its annual Christmas display. With this ruling, the Court shifted its Establishment Clause jurisprudence away from a strict separation approach that had been articulated in Everson v. Board of Education and later incorporated into Lemon v. Kurtzman. A vital ingredient in the Lynch legacy is Justice O’Connor’s concurrence, in which she proposed a new Establishment Clause test. Justice O’Connor’s endorsement test suggested that a governmental accommodation of religion would not violate the First Amendment unless the government intends or is perceived to endorse religion.