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Page Number: 65

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AMERICAN LEGION v. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSN. 

GORSUCH, J., concurring in judgment 

school student  compelled  to  recite  a  prayer  will  still  have 
standing to sue.  See School Dist. of Abington Township v. 
Schempp, 374 U. S. 203, 224, n. 9 (1963).  So will persons 
denied public office because of their religious affiliations or 
lack  of  them.    And  so  will  those  who  are  denied  govern-
ment benefits because they do not practice a favored reli-
gion  or  any  at  all.    Texas  Monthly,  Inc.  v.  Bullock,  489 
U. S. 1, 7–8 (1989) (plurality opinion).  On top of all that, 
States  remain  free  to  supply  other  forms  of  relief  con-
sistent with their own laws and constitutions. 
  Abandoning  offended  observer  standing  will  mean  only 
a  return  to  the  usual  demands  of  Article  III,  requiring  a 
real controversy with real impact on real persons to make 
a federal case out of it.  Along the way, this will bring with 
it the welcome side effect of rescuing the federal judiciary 
from the sordid business of having to pass aesthetic judg-
ment,  one  by  one,  on  every  public  display  in  this  country 
for  its  perceived  capacity  to  give  offense.    It’s  a  business 
that has consumed volumes of the federal reports, invited 
erratic  results,  frustrated  generations  of  judges,  and  fo-
mented  “the  very  kind  of  religiously  based  divisiveness 
that the Establishment Clause seeks to avoid.”  Van Orden 
v. Perry, 545 U. S. 677, 704 (2005) (BREYER, J., concurring 
in  judgment).    Courts  applying  Lemon’s  test  have  upheld 
Ten Commandment displays and demanded their removal; 
they have allowed memorial crosses and insisted that they 
be  razed;  they  have  permitted  Christmas  displays  and 
pulled the plug on them; and they have pondered seemingly 
endlessly  the  inclusion  of  “In  God  We  Trust”  on  currency 
or  similar  language  in  our  Pledge  of  Allegiance.    No  one 
can predict the rulings—but one thing is certain: Between 
the  challenged  practices  and  the  judicial  decisions,  just 
about everyone will wind up offended. 
  Nor have we yet come close to exhausting the potential 
sources of offense and federal litigation Lemon invited, for 
what about the display of the Ten Commandments on the