Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U.S. 793, 42 (2000)

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Cite as: 530 U. S. 793 (2000)

Opinion of Thomas, J.

amounted to "less than one percent of the total allocation over all those years." Id., at 132a-133a.

The District Court found that prescreening by the LEA coordinator of requested library books was sufficient to prevent statutory violations, see App. to Pet. for Cert. 107a, and the Fifth Circuit did not disagree. Further, as noted, the monitoring system appears adequate to catch those errors that do occur. We are unwilling to elevate scattered de minimis statutory violations, discovered and remedied by the relevant authorities themselves prior to any litigation, to such a level as to convert an otherwise unobjectionable parishwide program into a law that has the effect of advancing religion.

IV

In short, Chapter 2 satisfies both the first and second primary criteria of Agostini. It therefore does not have the effect of advancing religion. For the same reason, Chapter 2 also "cannot reasonably be viewed as an endorsement of religion," Agostini, 521 U. S., at 235. Accordingly, we hold that Chapter 2 is not a law respecting an establishment of religion. Jefferson Parish need not exclude religious schools from its Chapter 2 program.19 To the extent that Meek and Wolman conflict with this holding, we overrule them.

Our conclusion regarding Meek and Wolman should come as no surprise. The Court as early as Wolman itself left no doubt that Meek and Allen were irreconcilable, see 433 U. S., at 251, n. 18, and we have repeatedly reaffirmed Allen since then, see, e. g., Agostini, supra, at 231. (In fact, Meek, in

19 Indeed, as petitioners observe, to require exclusion of religious schools from such a program would raise serious questions under the Free Exercise Clause. See, e. g., Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. Hialeah, 508 U. S. 520, 532 (1993) ("At a minimum, the protections of the Free Exercise Clause pertain if the law at issue discriminates against some or all religious beliefs"); Everson, 330 U. S., at 16; cf. Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U. S. 819 (1996) (holding that Free Speech Clause bars exclusion of religious viewpoints from limited public forum).

835

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