1; Brief for Respondents 20. Today, the Court explains how the Montana Constitution, as interpreted by the State Supreme Court, violates the First Amendment by discriminating against parents and schools based on their religious status or identity. Dictionaries defined a “sectarian” as a member “of a party in religion which has separated itself from the established church, or which holds tenets different from those of the prevailing denomination in a kingdom or state”—a heretic. In Locke, the Court held that prohibiting a student from using a generally available state scholarship to pursue a degree in devotional theology did not violate the student’s free exercise rights. See, e.g., Locke v. Davey, 540 U. S. 712, 723, n. 7 (2004); Mitchell, 530 U. S., at 828–829 (plurality opinion); see also ante, at 15–16; Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, 536 U. S. 639, 720–721 (2002) (Breyer, J., dissenting). Employment Security Div., 450 U. S. 707 (1981), the Court held that Eddie Thomas had the right to resign from his job and still collect an unemployment check after he decided he could not assemble military tank turrets consistent with the teachings of his faith. The Justices focused on whether the Montana Supreme Court's decision to shut down the entire program was discriminatory towards the secular schools, as well as trying to resolve this case with recent decision related to the Free Exercise Clause, such as Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer,[12] in which the Court previously ruled that blocking public funds to be used by a church to improve playground safety was a violation of the Free Exercise Clause. See Brief for Respondents 19, 25. To be sure, petitioners may want to apply for scholarships and would prefer that Montana subsidize their children’s religious education. See id., at 300–301, 307, 311. See School Dist. The Court explained that the program provided “no mechanism” for preventing aid from flowing to religious schools, and therefore the scholarship program could not “under any circumstance” be construed as consistent with the no-aid provision. Instead the aim was to establish a system that would inculcate a form of “least-common- denominator Protestantism.”10 This was accomplished with, daily reading from the King James Bible, a curriculum that, Mann said, let the book “speak for itself.” 4 Life and Works of Horace Mann 312 (1891) (Mann’s 12th annual report on the Massachusetts schools; emphasis deleted). Bd. See ante, at 2–6 (Ginsburg, J., dissenting). The trial court enjoined Rule 1, holding that it was based on a mistake of law. The Free Exercise Clause thus protects against “indirect coercion or penalties on the free exercise of religion.” Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Assn., 485 U. S. 439, 450 (1988). Finally, in its briefing before this Court, Montana has represented that its Constitution focuses on preventing the use of tax credits to subsidize religious activity. v. MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE et al. X, §6(1), the Montana Department of Revenue promulgated “Rule 1,” which prohibited families from using the scholarships at religious schools. J. As the Court acknowledged in Trinity Lutheran, however, that does not answer the question whether providing such aid is required. See ibid. In both instances state funds are sought for those who would “instruc[t] such citizens, as from their circumstances and want of education, cannot otherwise attain such knowledge” in the tenets of religious faith. Any Establishment Clause objection to the scholarship program here is particularly unavailing because the government support makes its way to religious schools only as a result of Montanans independently choosing to spend their scholarships at such schools. 3. See, e.g., Walz v. Tax Comm’n of City of New York, 397 U. S. 664, 668–669 (1970). As the majority acknowledges, two cases are particularly relevant: Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, 582 U. S. ___, and Locke v. Davey, 540 U. S. 712. Having held that petitioners may not be “exclu[ded] from the scholarship program” that no longer exists, the Court remands to the Montana Supreme Court for “further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.” Ante, at 22. Our federal system prizes state experimentation, but not “state experimentation in the suppression of free speech,” and the same goes for the free exercise of religion. Catholics were considered by such groups not as citizens of the United States, but as “soldiers of the Church of Rome,”4 who “would attempt to subvert representative government.”5 Catholic education was a particular concern. (statement of Delegate Schiltz); see also, e.g., id., at 2010 (statement of Delegate Harbaugh) (recognizing the provision as a Blaine Amendment, which “espoused the purpose of the Know-nothing Party”); id., at 2011 (statement of Delegate Toole) (recognizing the provision as a Blaine Amendment); id., at 2013 (statement of Chairman Graybill) (same); id., at 2027 (statement of Delegate Campbell) (same); id., at 2030 (statement of Delegate Champoux) (same). Individuals are forced only to choose between forgoing state aid or pursuing some aspect of their faith. The Montana Supreme Court invalidated a state tax-credit program because it was inconsistent with the Montana Constitution’s “no-aid provision,” Art. The provision mandated only that the state treasury not be used to fund religious schooling. An infringement of First Amendment rights, however, cannot be justified by a State’s alternative view that the infringement advances religious liberty. As originally adopted, Montana’s Constitution prohibited the state and local governments from “ever mak[ing,] directly or indirectly, any appropriation” for “any sectarian purpose” or “to aid in the support of any school . In full, that provision states: “Aid prohibited to sectarian schools. See Reply Brief 5. See 377 U. S., at 223. I write separately only to address an additional point. The Montana Legislature enacted a scholarship program to fund tuition for students attending private secondary schools. So long as this hostility remains, fostered by our distorted understanding of the Establishment Clause, free exercise rights will continue to suffer. 479, 487–488 (2015). The Montana Supreme Court, however, held as a matter of state law that even such indirect government support qualified as “aid” prohibited under the Montana Constitution. “Having concluded the Tax Credit Program violates” the no-aid provision, the court held, “it is not necessary to consider federal precedent interpreting the First Amendment’s less-restrictive Establishment Clause.” Ibid. X, §6(1). v. Grumet, Arizona Christian Sch. The Department’s argument that the no-aid provision actually promotes religious freedom is unavailing because an infringement of First Amendment rights cannot be justified by a State’s alternative view that the infringement advances religious liberty. L. Rev. All agreed that Rule 1 was invalid, but they expressed differing views on whether the scholarship program was consistent with the Montana and United States Constitutions. Big Sky focuses on providing scholarships to families who face financial hardship or have children with disabilities. The Supreme Courtâs decision siding with religious-school parents in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue will have implications far beyond Montana. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES No. v. MONTANA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE et al. 393 Mont., at 462–463, 435 P. 3d, at 611. 152; see id., at 138, 167. In that way, the scholarship program flouted the State Constitution’s “guarantee to all Montanans that their government will not use state funds to aid religious schools.” Id., at 467, 435 P. 3d, at 614. of School Dist. 393 Mont. See Dreisbach, George Mason’s Pursuit of Religious Liberty in Revolutionary Virginia, 108 Va. Mag. The Free Exercise Clause, although enshrined explicitly in the Constitution, rests on the lowest rung of the Court’s ladder of rights, and precariously so at that. Nor is it enough that petitioners might wish that Montana’s no-aid provision were no longer good law. See also post, at 8, 13 (Breyer, J., dissenting). Const., Art. & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U. S. 756, 794–796 (1973). See Buckley, After Disestablishment: Thomas Jefferson’s Wall of Separation in Antebellum Virginia, 61 J. The Court’s reliance in our prior cases on the notion of “play in the joints,” our hesitation to apply presumptions of unconstitutionality, and our tendency to confine benefit- related holdings to the context in which they arose all reflect a recognition that great care is needed if we are to realize the Religion Clauses’ basic purpose “to promote and assure the fullest scope of religious liberty and religious tolerance for all and to nurture the conditions which secure the best hope of attainment of that end.” Schempp, 374 U. S., at 305 (opinion of Goldberg, J., joined by Harlan, J. The majority finds that the school-playground case, Trinity Lutheran, and not the religious-studies case, Locke, controls here. [9] Their lawsuit was supported by the Institute for Justice, a non-profit organization that has fought against state laws that enforce the Blaine amendments in their constitutions. Alito cited the Court's earlier decision in Ramos v. Louisiana,[18] in which judgement was partially based on the motivation of outdated Jim Crow laws in the nature of jury verdicts. This, too, presupposes that the Establishment Clause prohibits the government from favoring religion or taking steps to promote it. 5 P. Hamburger, Separation of Church and State 206 (2002). The term was likewise used against Mormons and Jews.6, Backers of the Blaine Amendment either held nativist views or capitalized on them. II, §12, Art. Trinity Lutheran held that ineligibility for a government benefit impermissibly burdened a church’s religious exercise by “put[ting it] to the choice between being a church and receiving a government benefit.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 13). ante, at 13 (Alito, J., concurring) (inapt reference to Anatole France’s remark). Although the majority refers in passing to the “play in the joints” between that which the Establishment Clause forbids and that which the Free Exercise Clause requires, its holding leaves that doctrine a shadow of its former self. certiorari to the supreme court of montana No. The final step in this line of reasoning eliminated the program, to the detriment of religious and non-religious schools alike. Some States have concluded that their no-aid provisions do not bar scholarships to students at religious schools, while others without such clauses have nevertheless chosen not to fund religious education. Church & St. 427, 436 (1983); Everson, 330 U. S., at 12. Pp. The project, the article concluded, would cause “intense anxiety by all who are interested in upholding the admirable system of public school education.” Ibid. The argument that the decision below treats everyone the same is reminiscent of Anatole France’s sardonic remark that “ ‘[t]he law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.’ ” J. Cournos, A Modern Plutarch 35 (1928). They believe that the tenets of their faith require them to send their children to a religious school. Espinoza is the inevitable next step in an important string of Supreme Court decisions about religious discrimination and the U.S. Constitution. Cf. 422, 430, 472 P. 2d 1013, 1017 (1970) (per curiam). Under that decree, secular and sectarian schools alike are ineligible for benefits, so the decision cannot be said to entail differential treatment based on petitioners’ religion. Instead, the Court holds that it need not consider how Montana’s funds would be used because, in its view, all distinctions on the basis of religion—whether in respect to playground grants or devotional teaching—are similarly and presumptively unconstitutional. But this case does not involve a claim of status-based discrimination.
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