The First Amendment to the United States Constitution includes the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. These clauses require that the legislature neither establish an official religion nor unnecessarily restrict the practice of any religion. United States Constitution amend. I. The Supreme Court has adopted a neutrality standard to meet the Establishment Clause which states: Neither the federal nor state governments may make laws that aid any religion, aid all religions, or favor one religion over another, and do not they cannot even force or influence a person to profess belief or disbelief in any religion. Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 US 1, 15 (1947). This means that Martin County Council cannot actively support any particular religion over another and also cannot restrict any particular religion. See Marsh v. Chambers, 463 US 794, 795 (1983). It must remain religiously neutral. Id. at 795. The Martin County Board's practice of offering a prayer before board meetings violates the Establishment Clause because they provided strong sectarian references in their invocations, endorsed Christianity, and forced those present to participate in the prayers.A. The Lemon Test In the past, courts have used the three-prong test, first articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, to determine the purpose, primary effect, and government involvement with public and religious entities. 403US 602, 613-14 (1971). In the Lemon case, the Supreme Court examined the constitutionality of the law that granted aid directly to private schools. Id. at 606-07. The Supreme Court has held that the government must be completely excluded from the sphere of religious education and that churches must be excluded from the affairs of the government, which is now being ref...... half of the document ..... .T AMENDMENT BECAUSE THE PRAYERS GIVEN BEFORE EACH MEETING SHOW APPROVAL AND COERCION OF A PARTICULAR FAITH. Anne Dhaliwal is authorized to object to the legislative opening of the Martin County Council because Lemon and his progeny prohibit the endorsement or coercion of any religion with the effect of associating the government with any particular belief or faith. Cnty of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union Greater Pittsburgh Chapter, 492 US 573, 604 (1989). However, Allegheny allows legislative prayers if they are nonsectarian. Id. at 631. Because the Martin County Council's legislative prayers significantly referenced Christianity and their refusal to respond to Ms. Dhaliwal's request to void the prayer invocations of any sectarian reference, the Martin County Council's practices violated Ms. Dhaliwal's constitutional rights under the First Amendment.