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1971

1971

In New York Times Co. v. United States, the Supreme Court rules that newspapers are free from pre-publication restraints (prior restraint), even during wartime, and allows the Times to continue publishing the Pentagon Papers, which included classified information about policies in the Vietnam War.

In Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Supreme Court uses a three part test to determine whether a governmental action violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against an establishment of religion. To pass the test, the action must have a secular purpose, its primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion, and there must be no excessive government entanglement with religion.