Cite as: 530 U. S. 793 (2000)
Souter, J., dissenting
IV
The plurality would break with the law. The majority misapplies it. That misapplication is, however, the only consolation in the case, which reaches an erroneous result but does not stage a doctrinal coup. But there is no mistaking the abandonment of doctrine that would occur if the plurality were to become a majority. It is beyond question that the plurality's notion of evenhandedness neutrality as a practical guarantee of the validity of aid to sectarian schools would be the end of the principle of no aid to the schools' religious mission. And if that were not so obvious it would become so after reflecting on the plurality's thoughts about diversion
planted support in some budgetary categories. The record of affidavits and evaluation forms by religious schoolteachers and officials indicates that Chapter 2 aid was significant in the development of teaching curriculums, the introduction of new programs, and the support of old ones. App. 105a-108a, 184a-185a. The evidence shows that the concept of supplementing instead of supplanting was poorly understood by the sole government official administering the program, who apparently believed that the bar on supplanting was nothing more than a prohibition on paying for replacements of equipment that religious schools had previously purchased. Id., at 167a. Government officials admitted that there was no way to determine whether payments for materials, equipment, books, or other assistance provided under the program reduced the amount of money budgeted for library and educational equipment, id., at 145a-146a, and the 1985 Monitoring Report shows that the officials of at least one religious school admitted that the government aid was used to create the library, with the school's regular funds, when occasionally available, used merely to supplement the government money, Fine Deposition, id., at 63a. The use records for audiovisual materials at one religious high school revealed that Chapter 2 funds were essential to the school's educational process, id., at 187a, and a different school, as already noted, used a Chapter 2 computer to support its computer network when its own computers failed, id., at 77a. The record is sparse, but these incidents suggest that the constitutional and statutory prohibition on supplanting expenses may have been largely aspirational. It seems that the program in Jefferson Parish violated the statute and ran afoul of the Constitution. Cf. Nyquist, 413 U. S., at 783; Zobrest, 509 U. S., at 12.
911
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