Home › Case briefs › Constitutional Law

Hunt v. McNair

Supreme Court of the United States · 1973 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawEstablishment ClauseReligion ClausesState Aid to Religious CollegesEstablishment ClauseLemon v. Kurtzmansecular purposeprimary effect

Facts

South Carolina created an Educational Facilities Authority to assist institutions of higher education through issuance of revenue bonds, but the Act excluded from any financed project facilities used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or primarily in connection with a divinity program. The Baptist College at Charleston sought preliminary approval for $1,250,000 in revenue bonds, mainly to refinance capital improvements and complete dining hall facilities. Under the proposed arrangement, the College would convey the project to the Authority, lease it back, and regain title after the bonds were paid. The Act, the Authority's rules, and the contemplated lease required covenants forbidding sectarian use of the project, allowed inspections to enforce that restriction, and specified that the bonds were not obligations of the State and would be paid solely from project revenues.

Issue

Whether the South Carolina Educational Facilities Authority Act, as applied to the proposed revenue-bond financing for the Baptist College at Charleston, violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. More specifically, the question was whether the transaction lacked a secular purpose, had the primary effect of advancing religion, or fostered excessive government entanglement with religion.

Rule

Under the Establishment Clause, a statute is valid only if it has a secular legislative purpose, its principal or primary effect neither advances nor inhibits religion, and it does not foster excessive government entanglement with religion. Aid may have the forbidden primary effect of advancing religion when it flows to an institution in which religion is so pervasive that a substantial portion of its functions are subsumed in its religious mission, or when it funds a specifically religious activity in an otherwise substantially secular setting.

🔒

See the holding & full analysis

Create a free KwikCourt account to unlock the rest of this brief — and practice the case.

The court's holding and reasoning
Doctrine tests, pitfalls & exam hypotheticals
10 practice questions + 4 AI-graded essays on this case

Free sample · practice this case

Test yourself

One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

Ohio creates the Lakeview Higher Education Facilities Authority to issue revenue bonds for any nonprofit college in the state, whether religiously affiliated or not. The statute declares that its purpose is to expand educational opportunities and improve facilities for higher education, and a Methodist-affiliated college in Columbus seeks financing for a new chemistry laboratory that may not be used for worship, sectarian instruction, or divinity courses.

A taxpayer challenges the statute as applied to this transaction. Which argument most strongly supports upholding the statute under the first part of the governing Establishment Clause framework?

Explanation. The majority applied the purpose inquiry by asking whether the legislation had a secular legislative objective. A program open to institutions of higher education generally, designed to expand educational opportunity and improve facilities, satisfies that requirement even when a religiously affiliated college benefits. The question is not whether the recipient lacks religious ties, but whether the legislature's purpose is secular.