Cite as: 515 U. S. 819 (1995)
Thomas, J., concurring
The historical evidence of government support for religious entities through property tax exemptions is also overwhelming. As the dissent concedes, property tax exemptions for religious bodies "have been in place for over 200 years without disruption to the interests represented by the Establishment Clause." Post, at 881, n. 7 (citing Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York, 397 U. S. 664, 676-680 (1970)).4 In my view, the dissent's acceptance of this tradition puts to rest the notion that the Establishment Clause bars monetary aid to religious groups even when the aid is equally available to other groups. A tax exemption in many cases is economically and functionally indistinguishable from a direct monetary subsidy.5 In one instance, the government relieves reliever"); Act of Mar. 2, 1833, ch. 86, §§ 1, 3, 6 Stat. 538 (granting to Georgetown College—a Jesuit institution—"lots in the city of Washington, to the amount, in value, of twenty-five thousand dollars," and directing the College to sell the lots and invest the proceeds, thereafter using the dividends to establish and endow such professorships as it saw fit); see also Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U. S. 38, 103 (1985) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ("As the United States moved from the 18th into the 19th century, Congress appropriated time and again public moneys in support of sectarian Indian education carried on by religious organizations").
4 The Virginia experience during the period of the Assessment Controversy itself is inconsistent with the rigid "no-aid" principle embraced by the dissent. Since at least 1777, the Virginia Legislature authorized tax exemptions for property belonging to the "commonwealth, or to any county, town, college, houses for divine worship, or seminary of learning." Act of Jan. 23, 1800, ch. 2, § 1, 1800 Va. Acts. And even Thomas Jefferson, respondents' founder and a champion of disestablishment in Virginia, advocated the use of public funds in Virginia for a department of theology in conjunction with other professional schools. See S. Padover, The Complete Jefferson 1067 (1943); see also id., at 958 (noting that Jefferson advocated giving "to the sectarian schools of divinity the full benefit [of] the public provisions made for instruction in the other branches of science").
5 In the tax literature, this identity is called a "tax expenditure," a concept "based upon recognition of the fact that a government can appropriate money to a particular person or group by using a special, narrowly directed tax deduction or exclusion, instead of by using its ordinary direct
859
Page: Index Previous 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007