The First Amendment to the United States Constitution includes the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. These clauses stipulate that the legislator must neither establish an official religion nor unnecessarily restrict the practice of a religion. Const. to modify. I. The Supreme Court adopted a standard of neutrality to satisfy the Establishment Clause stating: Neither the federal nor the state governments may enact laws that aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion to another , and cannot force or influence a person. profess a belief or disbelief in a religion. Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 US 1, 15 (1947). This means that the Martin County Council cannot actively support one particular religion over another nor can it restrict any particular religion. See Marsh v. Chambers, 463 US 794, 795 (1983). It must remain religiously neutral. Identifier. at 795. The Martin County Council's practice of offering prayer before its board meetings violates the Establishment Clause because they provided strong sectarian references in their invocations, endorsed Christianity, and coerced those present to participate in the prayers. The Lemon TestCourts have used the three-prong test in the past, first stated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, to determine the purpose, primary effect, and entanglement of government with respect to religious and public entities. 403 U.S. 602, 613-14 (1971). In Lemon, the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a law providing direct aid to private schools. Identifier. at 606-07. The Supreme Court has ruled that the government must be entirely excluded from the field of religious instruction and the churches excluded from the affairs of government, which is now ref...... middle of paper ......T AMENDMENT BECAUSE THE PRAYERS GIVEN BEFORE EACH MEETING SHOW THE APPROVAL AND COERCION OF A PARTICULAR FAITH. Anne Dhaliwal is justified in opposing the Martin County Council's open-door legislation because Lemon and her progeny prohibit the endorsement or coercion of any religion that has the effect of associating government with a particular belief. or faith. Allegheny County v. American Civil Liberties Union Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 US 573, 604 (1989). However, Allegheny allows legislative prayers if they are non-sectarian. Identifier. at 631. Because the Martin County Council's legislative prayers made significant reference to Christianity and their refusal to respond to Ms. Dhaliwal's request to nullify the prayer invocations of any sectarian reference, the council's practices Martin County violated Ms. Dhaliwal's constitutional rights under the First Amendment..