838
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
precedents and, in any event, unnecessary to decide the instant case.
The clearest example of the plurality's near-absolute position with respect to neutrality is found in its following statement:
"If the religious, irreligious, and areligious are all alike eligible for governmental aid, no one would conclude that any indoctrination that any particular recipient conducts has been done at the behest of the government. For attribution of indoctrination is a relative question. If the government is offering assistance to recipients who provide, so to speak, a broad range of indoctrination, the government itself is not thought responsible for any particular indoctrination. To put the point differently, if the government, seeking to further some legitimate secular purpose, offers aid on the same terms, without regard to religion, to all who adequately further that purpose, then it is fair to say that any aid going to a religious recipient only has the effect of furthering that secular purpose." Ante, at 809-810 (citation omitted).
I agree with Justice Souter that the plurality, by taking such a stance, "appears to take evenhandedness neutrality and in practical terms promote it to a single and sufficient test for the establishment constitutionality of school aid." Post, at 900 (dissenting opinion).
I do not quarrel with the plurality's recognition that neutrality is an important reason for upholding government-aid programs against Establishment Clause challenges. Our cases have described neutrality in precisely this manner, and we have emphasized a program's neutrality repeatedly in our decisions approving various forms of school aid. See, e. g., Agostini, supra, at 228, 231-232; Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School Dist., 509 U. S. 1, 10 (1993); Witters v. Washington Dept. of Servs. for Blind, 474 U. S. 481, 487-488 (1986); id., at 493 (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring
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