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siveness are similar: The Court looks to the character and purposes of the benefited institutions, the nature of the aid that the State provides, and the resulting relationship between the government and religious authority. Id., at 615. It is simplest to recognize why entanglement is significant and treat it—as the Court did in Walz—as an aspect of the inquiry into a statute's effect. The Aguilar Court's finding of "excessive" entanglement rested on three grounds: (i) the program would require "pervasive monitoring by public authorities" to ensure that Title I employees did not inculcate religion; (ii) the program required "administrative cooperation" between the government and parochial schools; and (iii) the program might increase the dangers of "political divisiveness." 473 U. S., at 413-414. Under the Court's current Establishment Clause understanding, the last two considerations are insufficient to create an "excessive entanglement" because they are present no matter where Title I services are offered, but no court has held that Title I services cannot be offered off campus. E. g., Aguilar, supra. Further, the first consideration has been undermined by Zobrest. Because the Court in Zobrest abandoned the presumption that public employees will inculcate religion simply because they happen to be in a sectarian environment, there is no longer any need to assume that pervasive monitoring of Title I teachers is required. There is no suggestion in the record that the system New York City has in place to monitor Title I employees is insufficient to prevent or to detect inculcation. Moreover, the Court has failed to find excessive entanglement in cases involving far more onerous burdens on religious institutions. See Bowen v. Kendrick, 487 U. S. 589, 615-617. Pp. 232-235. (f) Thus, New York City's Title I program does not run afoul of any
of three primary criteria the Court currently uses to evaluate whether government aid has the effect of advancing religion: It does not result in governmental indoctrination, define its recipients by reference to religion, or create an excessive entanglement. Nor can this carefully constrained program reasonably be viewed as an endorsement of religion. Pp. 234-235. (g) The stare decisis doctrine does not preclude this Court from recognizing the change in its law and overruling Aguilar and those portions of Ball that are inconsistent with its more recent decisions. E. g., United States v. Gaudin, 515 U. S. 506, 521. Moreover, in light of the Court's conclusion that Aguilar would be decided differently under current Establishment Clause law, adherence to that decision would undoubtedly work a "manifest injustice," such that the law of the case doctrine does not apply. Accord, Davis v. United States, 417 U. S. 333, 342. Pp. 235-236.
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