States Can't Exclude Churches From Grant Programs

The justices on Monday ruled 7-2 in favor of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri. He called it "odious to our Constitution" to exclude the church from the grant program, even though the consequences are only "a few extra scraped knees".

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, "If this separation means anything, it means that the government can not, or at the very least need not, tax its citizens and turn that money over to houses of worship". Its decision slights both our precedents and our history, and its reasoning weakens this country's longstanding commitment to a separation of church and state beneficial to both.

Two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, refused to sign on to a footnote explicitly stating that the court's approval applied only to playground funding and should not be read as applying to parochial schools in general.

The Trinity Lutheran case stems from efforts by the church to improve its preschool playground by applying in 2012 for Missouri's scrap-tire grant program, which provides money to install safe, rubberized ground coverings that provide an environmentally friendly use for old tires. "This is clearly singling out a religious organization with no justification to do so", David Cortman, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said during oral argument.

Trinity Lutheran had sued the state under its First Amendment right to free exercise of religion and its 14th Amendment equal-protection right.

"I'll simply say that it has been a bright line rule since America's founding that the government will not fund religion or the free exercise of religion", he said.

In April, Greitens reversed a Missouri policy that had banned religious organizations from receiving certain state grants, saying that the state should encourage the state's "hundreds of outstanding religious organizations" that do "great work on behalf of kids and families every single day". The church then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Not so, the state of Missouri countered. The provisions are named for James G. Blaine, the 19th-century congressman who led an unsuccessful 1876 effort to amend the U.S. Constitution to prohibit public funding of religious schools at a time when the growing Roman Catholic population was pressing for government funding for parochial schools.

"This ruling is yet another breath of fresh air for those who value faith and freedom", said Dr. The state of Missouri denied the funding claiming that religious institutions can't be funded by the state. The church's application to resurface the playground for its preschool and daycare ranked fifth out of 44 applicants. In recent years, as the Supreme Court has become increasingly willing to lower the wall separating church and state under the federal Constitution, these state constitutions have become bigger and bigger obstacles to those like Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, an ardent advocate of so-called school-choice programs. The Colorado Supreme Court has blocked the program based on a Blaine-like, "no aid" provision in the state constitution.