Cite as: 530 U. S. 793 (2000)
Opinion of Thomas, J.
Members of the majority questioned whether this category was "well-founded," id., at 624 (Kennedy, J., joined by Scalia, J., concurring). Then, in Zobrest and Agostini, we upheld aid programs to children who attended schools that were not only pervasively sectarian but also were primary and secondary. Zobrest, in turning away a challenge based on the pervasively sectarian nature of Salpointe Catholic High School, emphasized the presence of private choice and the absence of government-provided sectarian content. 509 U. S., at 13. Agostini, in explaining why the aid program was constitutional, did not bother to mention that pervasively sectarian schools were at issue,13 see 521 U. S., at 226- 235, a fact that was not lost on the dissent, see id., at 249 (opinion of Souter, J.). In disregarding the nature of the school, Zobrest and Agostini were merely returning to the approach of Everson and Allen, in which the Court upheld aid programs to students at pervasively sectarian schools. See post, at 875, 885-886 (Souter, J., dissenting) (noting this fact regarding Everson); Allen, 392 U. S., at 251-252 (Black, J., dissenting); id., at 262-264, 269-270, n. (Douglas, J., dissenting).
Second, the religious nature of a recipient should not matter to the constitutional analysis, so long as the recipient adequately furthers the government's secular purpose. See supra, at 810. If a program offers permissible aid to the religious (including the pervasively sectarian), the areligious, and the irreligious, it is a mystery which view of religion the government has established, and thus a mystery what the constitutional violation would be. The pervasively sectarian recipient has not received any special favor, and it is most bizarre that the Court would, as the dissent seemingly does, reserve special hostility for those who take their religion seriously, who think that their religion should affect the whole
13 Nor does Justice O'Connor do so today in her analysis of Jefferson Parish's Chapter 2 program.
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