Retaining established, religiously expressive monuments, symbols, and practices is quite different from erecting or adopting new ones. The passage of time gives rise to a strong presumption of constitutionality under the establishment clause. American Legion v. American Humanist Ass’n, 588 U. S. ____, 139 S. Ct. 2067, 204 L. Ed. 2d 452 (2019).

The Montana Constitution bars aid to any school controlled in whole or in part by any church, sect, or denomination. Like the grants at issue in Trinity Lutheran, 582 U.S. 449 (2017), the no-aid provision bars religious schools from public benefits solely because of the religious character of the schools. A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious. Therefore, the free exercise clause of the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution precluded the Montana Supreme Court from applying Montana’s no-aid provision to bar religious schools from a scholarship program established by the Montana Legislature. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, 591 U.S. ___, 140 S. Ct. 2246, 207 L. Ed. 2d 679 (2020). See also Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S. ___, 142 S. Ct. 1987, 213 L. Ed. 2d 286 (2022).

The refusal of a city to contract with a child welfare agency for the provision of foster care services unless the child welfare agency agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents cannot survive strict scrutiny and violates the 1st amendment. Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 593 U.S. ___, 141 S. Ct. 1868, 210 L. Ed. 2d 137 (2021).

When a government does not speak for itself, it may not exclude speech based on religious viewpoint; doing so constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination. In this case, the city’s program that allowed private groups to request use of the flagpole outside city hall to raise flags of their choosing did not express government speech. As a result, the city’s refusal to let the applicants fly their Christian flag based on its religious viewpoint violated the free speech clause of the 1st amendment and did not raise an establishment of religion violation. Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 596 U.S. ___, 142 S. Ct. 1583, 212 L. Ed. 2d 621 (2022).

The expressive activity of a high school football coach who knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks during a period when school employees were free to attend to personal matters and while students were otherwise occupied was protected by the free exercise and free speech clauses of the 1st amendment, and the establishment clause did not require or allow the school district to single out the coach’s private religious speech for special disfavor. The establishment clause does not compel the government to purge from the public sphere anything an objective observer could reasonably infer endorses or partakes of the religious. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. ___, 142 S. Ct. 2407, 213 L. Ed. 2d 755 (2022).

Government may not coerce anyone to attend church, nor may it force citizens to engage in a formal religious exercise. However, in this case, the private religious exercise of a high school football coach did not cross the line separating protected private expression from impermissible government coercion. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, 597 U.S. ___, 142 S. Ct. 2407, 213 L. Ed. 2d 755 (2022).

A legislative mandate requiring reasonable accommodation of religious conduct does not violate establishment clause. Nottelson v. Smith Steel Wkrs. D.A.L.U. 19806, 643 F.2d 445 (1981).

A prison regulation allowing a cross to be worn only with a rosary discriminated against protestants, without a “ghost of reason,” in violation of the right to the free exercise of religion. Sasnett v. Litscher, 197 F.3d 290 (1999).

Although the sale to private parties of a small parcel of land in a public park ended direct government action constituting endorsement of religion, the proximity of the statue to city property and the lack of visual definition between the city and private land created a perception of improper endorsement of religion in violation of the establishment clause. Freedom From Religion Foundation v. City of Marshfield, 203 F.3d 487 (2000).

A public library that allowed a wide range of uses of its meeting room by non-profit groups violated the 1st amendment by excluding the use of the room for religious services or instruction. Pfeifer v. City of West Allis, 91 F. Supp. 2d 1253 (2000).

Grants to a faith-based counseling organization that integrated religion into its counseling program were unconstitutional when there were insufficient safeguards in place to insure that public funding did not contribute to a religious end. Freedom From Religion Foundation v. McCallum, 179 F. Supp. 2d 950 (2002).

Excluding a religious charitable organization from participation in the Wisconsin State Employees Combined Campaign solely because that organization discriminates on the basis of religion or creed in choosing its governing board and employees is constitutionally impermissible. Ass’n of Faith-Based Organizations, 454 F. Supp. 812 (2006).

Nyquist and Public Aid to Private Education. Piekarski. 58 MLR 247 (1975).

The Light of Nature: John Locke, Natural Rights, and the Origins of American Religious Liberty. Heyman. 101 MLR 705 (2018).

A Masterpiece of Simplicity: Toward a Yoderian Free Exercise Framework for Wedding-Vendor Cases. Rogers. 103 MLR 163 (2019).

Constitutional Law—First Amendment—The Role of Civil Courts in Church Disputes. Cunningham. 1977 WLR 904.

First Amendment-Based Attacks on Wisconsin “Attendance Area” Statutes. Woessner. 1980 WLR 409.

Brave New World Revisited: Fifteen Years of Chemical Sacraments. Beyer. 1980 WLR 879.

Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District: Creating Greater Protection for Religious Speech Through the Illusion of Public Forum Analysis. Ehrmann. 1994 WLR 965.

King v. Village of Waunakee: Redefining Establishment Clause Jurisprudence in Wisconsin. Lanford. 1996 WLR 185.

Free Exercise (Dis)Honesty. Oleske. 2019 WLR 689.

How Vast is King’s Realm? Constitutional Challenge to the Church-State Clause. Gordon. Wis. Law. Aug. 1995.

I,19Religious tests prohibited. Section 19. No religious tests shall ever be required as a qualification for any office of public trust under the state, and no person shall be rendered incompetent to give evidence in any court of law or equity in consequence of his opinions on the subject of religion.

I,21(2)(2) In any court of this state, any suitor may prosecute or defend his suit either in his own proper person or by an attorney of the suitor’s choice. [1975 J.R. 13, 1977 J.R. 7, vote April 1977]

As a matter of Wisconsin constitutional law, the right to an appeal is absolute. In order that the right be meaningful, a defendant must be furnished a full transcript—or a functionally equivalent substitute that, in a criminal case, beyond a reasonable doubt, portrays in a way that is meaningful to the particular appeal exactly what happened in the course of trial. The usual remedy when the transcript deficiency is such that there cannot be a meaningful appeal is reversal with directions that there be a new trial. However, error in transcript preparation or production, like error in trial procedure, is subject to the harmless-error rule. State v. Perry, 136 Wis. 2d 92, 401 N.W.2d 748 (1987).