Cite as: 530 U. S. 793 (2000)
Opinion of Thomas, J.
tini, supra, at 225-226, 228, 230-232, but also in Zobrest, Witters, and Mueller.5 The heart of our reasoning in Zobrest, upholding governmental provision of a sign-language interpreter to a deaf student at his Catholic high school, was as follows:
"The service at issue in this case is part of a general government program that distributes benefits neutrally to any child qualifying as 'disabled' under the [statute], without regard to the 'sectarian-nonsectarian, or public-nonpublic nature' of the school the child attends. By according parents freedom to select a school of their choice, the statute ensures that a government-paid interpreter will be present in a sectarian school only as a result of the private decision of individual parents. In other words, because the [statute] creates no financial incentive for parents to choose a sectarian school, an interpreter's presence there cannot be attributed to state decisionmaking." 509 U. S., at 10.
As this passage indicates, the private choices helped to ensure neutrality, and neutrality and private choices together eliminated any possible attribution to the government even when the interpreter translated classes on Catholic doctrine.
Witters and Mueller employed similar reasoning. In Witters, we held that the Establishment Clause did not bar a State from including within a neutral program providing tuition payments for vocational rehabilitation a blind person studying at a Christian college to become a pastor, missionary, or youth director. We explained:
"Any aid . . . that ultimately flows to religious institutions does so only as a result of the genuinely independent and private choices of aid recipients. Washington's
5 Justice O'Connor acknowledges that "neutrality is an important reason for upholding government-aid programs," one that our recent cases have "emphasized . . . repeatedly." Post, at 838 (opinion concurring in judgment).
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