Cite as: 512 U. S. 687 (1994)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
Lemon has, with some justification, been criticized on this score.
Moreover, shoehorning new problems into a test that does not reflect the special concerns raised by those problems tends to deform the language of the test. Relatively simple phrases like "primary effect . . . that neither advances nor inhibits religion" and " 'entanglement,' " Lemon, supra, at 612-613, acquire more and more complicated definitions which stray ever further from their literal meaning. Distinctions are drawn between statutes whose effect is to advance religion and statutes whose effect is to allow religious organizations to advance religion. See, e. g., Corporation of Presiding Bishop of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Amos, 483 U. S. 327, 336-337 (1987); id., at 347 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment) (discussing this point). Assertions are made that authorizing churches to veto liquor sales in surrounding areas "can be seen as having a 'primary' and 'principal' effect of advancing religion." Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc., 459 U. S. 116, 125-126 (1982). "[E]ntanglement" is discovered in public employers monitoring the performance of public employees—surely a proper enough function—on parochial school premises, and in the public employees cooperating with the school on class scheduling and other administrative details. Aguilar v. Felton, 473 U. S., at 413. Alternatives to Lemon suffer from a similar failing when they lead us to find "coercive pressure" to pray when a school asks listeners—with no threat of legal sanctions—to stand or remain silent during a graduation prayer. Lee v. Weisman, supra, at 592. Some of the results and perhaps even some of the reasoning in these cases may have been right. I joined two of the cases cited above, Larkin and Lee, and continue to believe they were correctly decided. But I think it is more useful to recognize the relevant concerns in each case on their own terms, rather than trying to squeeze them into language that does not really apply to them.
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