Shortly after Kennedy v. Bremerton School District was decided, I wrote that the Lemon test was finally interred. I observed that "Justice Gorsuch's majority opinion does not overrule Lemon in so many words, but the import of the ruling is clear--follow Town of Greece, not Lemon." Indeed, we do not get the magic words that we read in Dobbs:
Lemon was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. We hold that Lemon must be overruled.
Instead, Justice Gorsuch mustered this passage, which acted as if that Lemon was already overruled--or something like that.
