250
Souter, J., dissenting
be seen by the students as endorsement, see Ball, 473 U. S., at 390-392; Aguilar adopted the same conclusion by reference, see 473 U. S., at 409. Zobrest did not, implicitly or otherwise, repudiate the view that the involvement of public teachers in the instruction provided within sectarian schools looks like a partnership or union and implies approval of the sectarian aim. On the subject of symbolic unions and the strength of their implications, the lesson of Zobrest is merely that less is less.
B
The Court next claims that Ball rested on the assumption that "any and all public aid that directly aids the educational function of religious schools impermissibly finances religious indoctrination, even if the aid reaches such schools as a consequence of private decisionmaking." Ante, at 222. After Ball, the opinion continues, the Court departed from the rule that "all government aid that directly assists the educational function of religious schools is invalid." Ante, at 225. But this mischaracterizes Ball's discussion on the point, and misreads Witters and Zobrest as repudiating the more modest proposition on which Ball in fact rested.
Ball did not establish that "any and all" such aid to religious schools necessarily violates the Establishment Clause. It held that the Shared Time program subsidized the religious functions of the parochial schools by taking over a significant portion of their responsibility for teaching secular subjects. See 473 U. S., at 396-397. The Court noted that it had "never accepted the mere possibility of subsidization . . . as sufficient to invalidate an aid program," and instead enquired whether the effect of the proffered aid was " 'direct and substantial' " (and, so, unconstitutional) or merely "indirect and incidental" (and, so, permissible), emphasizing that the question " 'is one of degree.' " Id., at 394 (quoting Committee for Public Ed. & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist, 413 U. S. 756, 784-785, n. 39 (1973), and Zorach v. Clauson, 343
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