Alton T. Lemon, Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 84

[rug]

Published: May 26, 2013
By ADAM LIPTAK



Alton T. Lemon, a civil rights activist whose objection to state aid to religious schools gave rise to a watershed 1971 Supreme Court decision, died on May 4 in Jenkintown, Pa. He was 84.

He had Alzheimer’s disease, said Korinna Shaw, his daughter-in-law, who confirmed the death.

Mr. Lemon’s lawsuit challenged a 1968 Pennsylvania law that reimbursed religious schools for some expenses, including teachers’ salaries and textbooks, so long as they related to instruction on secular subjects also taught in the public schools.

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, writing for the court in Lemon v. Kurtzman, said the law violated the First Amendment’s prohibition of government establishment of religion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/us/alton-t-lemon-civil-rights-activist-dies-at-84.html?_r=0

R.I.P.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0403_0602_ZS.html

[hrmjustin]

1. May he rest in peace!

[Adsos Letter]

2. R.I.P., indeed.

A doer, not just a hearer.