836
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
discussing the materials-and-equipment program, did not even cite Allen. See Meek, 421 U. S., at 363-366.) Less than three years after Wolman, we explained that Meek did not, despite appearances, hold that "all loans of secular instructional material and equipment inescapably have the effect of direct advancement of religion." Regan, 444 U. S., at 661-662 (internal quotation marks omitted). Then, in Mueller, we conceded that the aid at issue in Meek and Wolman did "resembl[e], in many respects," the aid that we had upheld in Everson and Allen. 463 U. S., at 393, and n. 3; see id., at 402, n. 10; see also id., at 415 (Marshall, J., dissenting) (viewing Allen as incompatible with Meek and Wolman, and the distinction between textbooks and other instructional materials as "simply untenable"). Most recently, Agostini, in rejecting Ball's assumption that "all government aid that directly assists the educational function of religious schools is invalid," Agostini, supra, at 225, necessarily rejected a large portion (perhaps all, see Ball, 473 U. S., at 395) of the reasoning of Meek and Wolman in invalidating the lending of materials and equipment, for Ball borrowed that assumption from those cases. See 521 U. S., at 220-221 (Shared Time program at issue in Ball was "surely invalid . . . [g]iven the holdings in Meek and Wolman" regarding instructional materials and equipment). Today we simply acknowledge what has long been evident and was evident to the Ninth and Fifth Circuits and to the District Court.
The judgment of the Fifth Circuit is reversed.
It is so ordered.
Justice O'Connor, with whom Justice Breyer joins, concurring in the judgment.
In 1965, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 79 Stat. 27 (1965 Act). Under Title I, Congress provided monetary grants to States to address the needs of educationally deprived children of low-income families. Under Title II, Congress provided further monetary
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