856
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
tionally suspect any form of secular aid that might conceivably be diverted to a religious use. As the cases Justice Souter cites demonstrate, our concern with direct monetary aid is based on more than just diversion. In fact, the most important reason for according special treatment to direct money grants is that this form of aid falls precariously close to the original object of the Establishment Clause's prohibition. See, e. g., Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York, 397 U. S. 664, 668 (1970) ("[F]or the men who wrote the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment the 'establishment' of a religion connoted sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the sovereign in religious activity"). Statements concerning the constitutionally suspect status of direct cash aid, accordingly, provide no justification for applying an absolute rule against divertibility when the aid consists instead of instructional materials and equipment.
Justice Souter also relies on our decisions in Wolman (to the extent it concerned field-trip transportation for non-public schools), Levitt v. Committee for Public Ed. & Religious Liberty, 413 U. S. 472 (1973), Tilton v. Richardson, 403 U. S. 672 (1971), and Bowen. See post, at 893-895. None requires application of a divertibility rule in the context of this case. Wolman and Levitt were both based on the same presumption that government aid will be used in the inculcation of religion that we have chosen not to apply to textbook lending programs and that we have more generally rejected in recent decisions. Compare Wolman, 433 U. S., at 254; Levitt, supra, at 480, with supra, at 851-852; infra, at 859. In Tilton, we considered a federal statute that authorized grants to universities for the construction of buildings and facilities to be used exclusively for secular educational purposes. See 403 U. S., at 674-675. We held the statute unconstitutional only to the extent that a university's "obligation not to use the facility for sectarian instruction or religious worship . . . appear[ed] to expire at the end of 20 years." Id., at 683. To hold a statute unconstitutional because it lacks a secular content restriction is quite different
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