Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 115 (2000)

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908

MITCHELL v. HELMS

Souter, J., dissenting

Jefferson Parish program stood in the way of giving the Chapter 2 property outright to the religious schools when it became older. Although old equipment remained the property of the local education agency, a local government administrative body, one agency employee testified that there was no set policy for dealing with old computers, which were probably given outright to the religious schools. App. 161a- 162a. The witness said that government-funded instructional materials, too, were probably left with the religious schools when they were old, and that it was unclear whether library books were ever to be returned to the government. Ibid.

Providing such governmental aid without effective safeguards against future diversion itself offends the Establishment Clause, Tilton, 403 U. S., at 682-684; Nyquist, 413 U. S., at 776-777, and even without evidence of actual diversion, our cases have repeatedly held that a "substantial risk" of it suffices to invalidate a government aid program on establishment grounds. See, e. g., Wolman, 433 U. S., at 254 (invalidating aid for transportation on teacher-accompanied field trips because an "unacceptable risk of fostering of religion" was "an inevitable byproduct"); Meek, 421 U. S., at 372 (striking down program because of a "potential for impermissible fostering of religion"); Levitt, 413 U. S., at 480 (invali-dating aid for tests designed by religious teachers because of "the substantial risk that . . . examinations, prepared by teachers under the authority of religious institutions, will be drafted with an eye, unconsciously or otherwise, to inculcate students in the religious precepts of the sponsoring church"); Lemon, 403 U. S., at 619 (finding invalid aid with a "potential for impermissible fostering of religion"); cf. Bowen, 487 U. S., at 621 (noting that where diversion risk is less clearly made out, a case may be remanded for findings on actual diversion of aid to religious indoctrination); Regan, 444 U. S., at 656 (characterizing as "minimal" the chance that state-drafted tests with "complete" safeguards would be adopted to reli-

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