730
Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment
The residents of the town then vote upon the incorporation petition in a special election. N. Y. Village Law § 2-212 (Mc-Kinney 1973). By contrast, the Kiryas Joel Village School District was created by state legislation. The State of New York had complete discretion not to enact it. The State thus had a direct hand in accomplishing the religious segregation.
As the plurality indicates, the Establishment Clause does not invalidate a town or a State "whose boundaries are derived according to neutral historical and geographic criteria, but whose population happens to comprise coreligionists." Ante, at 702, n. 6. People who share a common religious belief or lifestyle may live together without sacrificing the basic rights of self-governance that all American citizens enjoy, so long as they do not use those rights to establish their religious faith. Religion flourishes in community, and the Establishment Clause must not be construed as some sort of homogenizing solvent that forces unconventional religious groups to choose between assimilating to mainstream American culture or losing their political rights. There is more than a fine line, however, between the voluntary association that leads to a political community comprised of people who share a common religious faith, and the forced separation that occurs when the government draws explicit political boundaries on the basis of peoples' faith. In creating the Kiryas Joel Village School District, New York crossed that line, and so we must hold the district invalid.
III
This is an unusual action, for it is rare to see a State exert such documented care to carve out territory for people of a particular religious faith. It is also unusual in that the problem to which the Kiryas Joel Village School District was addressed is attributable in no small measure to what I believe were unfortunate rulings by this Court.
Before 1985, the handicapped Satmar children of Kiryas Joel attended the private religious schools within the village
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