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Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Supreme Court of the United States · 2002 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawEstablishment Clauseschool vouchersneutralityprivate choiceEstablishment Clauseschool vouchersreligious education

Facts

Ohio created a school voucher program that allowed government funds to be used at participating private schools, including religious schools. The program required participating schools to accept students of all religions and prohibited schools from advocating unlawful behavior or teaching hatred on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion, with violations enforced by state officials. Many participating religious schools viewed their mission as communicating the gospel, fostering prayer, and instructing students in religious truths and values. The program thus directed public financing to primary religious education.

Issue

Whether a state voucher program that publicly finances tuition at private religious schools for primary education violates the Establishment Clause, notwithstanding the role of parental choice and the program's formally neutral structure.

Rule

The Establishment Clause, as understood in the dissent, is designed in part to prevent religiously based social conflict and therefore requires substantial separation of church and state in the area of primary religious education. Government funding that directs money to the teaching of religious truths to young children, even through parental choice and ostensibly neutral criteria, creates constitutionally significant risks of sectarian conflict, favoritism, and entanglement.

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

The legislature in Missouri creates a tuition-grant program for children in kindergarten through eighth grade who live in low-performing districts in St. Louis and Springfield. Families may use the grants at any approved private school, and most approved schools describe their mission as forming students in religious truth through daily worship and faith-based instruction.

Under Justice Breyer’s approach in the opinion provided, which is the strongest argument that the program violates the Establishment Clause?

Explanation. Justice Breyer’s reasoning treats primary religious education as an area of heightened Establishment Clause concern. He distinguishes peripheral secular aid from tuition support that funds the teaching of religious truths to young children. In his view, even formally neutral vouchers are constitutionally problematic because they directly support a core religious function and threaten sectarian conflict. (Derived from Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002).)