Yoga has taken the country by storm. According to a survey by Yoga Alliance and Yoga Journal, yoga is being practiced by some 37 million people in the U.S. including children. A growing body of research supports the positive physical and psychological effects of yoga. As a result, yoga has become part of the curriculum in many schools and has recently been introduced to girls in residential detention programs to help them cope with trauma. However, as yoga grows in popularity so do first amendment challenges to the practice of yoga especially in schools. Recent litigation has focused on whether teaching yoga in schools promotes religion and therefore violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
My presentation will provide a brief history of yoga and examples of how yoga is taught in schools and other government facilities. I will then discuss the legal standard for determining whether yoga violates the Establishment Clause including the Lemon test, a three-part test adopted by the Supreme Court to determine whether a government practice violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Finally, the presentation will conclude with a discussion of the recent case of Sedlock v. Baird, where the California appellate court held that a school district’s yoga program in San Diego did not violate the First Amendment.
About the presenterSejal Singh
Sejal is an Assistant Professor at St. John’s University in the Division of Criminal Justice, Legal Studies & Homeland Security. Sejal previously worked at St. John’s University School of Law where she was an Assistant Director of Career Development and an Adjunct Professor. Prior to St. John’s, Sejal was an Assistant Deputy Public Defender for the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender where she gained substantial litigation experience.