Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) Definition

A U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the right of a public school official—under the First Amendment free speech and free exercise clauses—to hold a prayer ceremony involving students and others at official school functions. Efforts by the school district to prohibit this practice under the establishment clause, said the Court, exhibited impermissible hostility to religion.

Kennedy did not expressly overrule, but called into question the viability of, the longstanding establishment clause "Lemon test." See Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 612 (1971). That test has been "abandoned" in favor of a historical analytical approach, according to the Court. Kennedy v. Bremerton School Dist., 597 U.S. ___, ___ (2022).