Question

In Santa Fe District v. Doe, the court ruled that student led prayer at a school football game failed the lemon test because it was “too entangled.” What does this mean? The courts thought the prayer was too close to a Catholic tradition. The courts thought students might be pressured to pray. The courts thought the games were too closely related to school activity. The courts thought the coach may have instructed the students to pray.

Answer 1

It means that the Courts thought the games were too closely related to school policy
The purpose of the lemon test was to determine when the law has effect of establishing religion.
The court concluded that praying before the game is not categorized as religious activity

Answer 2

In Santa Fe District v. Doe, the court ruled that student led prayer at a school football game failed the lemon test because it was "too entangled". This means that the court thought the games were too closely related to school activity. In this way, the football match could not be considered a private activity, but public because it was encouraged by the school. Similarly, the speech emanating from this event would be public, and being directly encouraged by the school, would violate the Establishment Clause, by linking directly to an entity of the government of the United States (the school) with religious issues.