Cite as: 512 U. S. 687 (1994)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
circumstances, it seems dangerous to validate what appears to me a clear religious preference.
Our invalidation of this statute in no way means that the Satmars' needs cannot be accommodated. There is nothing improper about a legislative intention to accommodate a religious group, so long as it is implemented through generally applicable legislation. New York may, for instance, allow all villages to operate their own school districts. If it does not want to act so broadly, it may set forth neutral criteria that a village must meet to have a school district of its own; these criteria can then be applied by a state agency, and the decision would then be reviewable by the judiciary. A district created under a generally applicable scheme would be acceptable even though it coincides with a village that was consciously created by its voters as an enclave for their religious group. I do not think the Court's opinion holds the contrary.
I also think there is one other accommodation that would be entirely permissible: the 1984 scheme, which was discontinued because of our decision in Aguilar. The Religion Clauses prohibit the government from favoring religion, but they provide no warrant for discriminating against religion. All handicapped children are entitled by law to government-funded special education. See, e. g., Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U. S. C. § 1400 et seq. If the government provides this education on-site at public schools and at nonsectarian private schools, it is only fair that it provide it on-site at sectarian schools as well.
I thought this to be true in Aguilar, see 473 U. S., at 421- 431 (dissenting opinion), and I still believe it today. The Establishment Clause does not demand hostility to religion, religious ideas, religious people, or religious schools. Cf. Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School Dist., 508 U. S. 384 (1993). It is the Court's insistence on disfavoring religion in Aguilar that led New York to favor it here. The Court should, in a proper case, be prepared to reconsider Aguilar, in order to bring our Establishment Clause juris-
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