880
Souter, J., dissenting
police, fire, and similar government services to religious institutions was permissible, in part because they were "so separate and so indisputably marked off from the religious function." 330 U. S., at 18. Allen similarly focused on the fact that the textbooks lent out were "secular" and approved by secular authorities, 392 U. S., at 245, and assumed that the secular textbooks and the secular elements of education they supported were not so intertwined with religious instruction as "in fact [to be] instrumental in the teaching of religion," id., at 248. Such was the Court's premise in Lemon for shifting the use of the word "neutral" from labeling the required position of the government to describing a benefit that was nonreligious. We spoke of "[o]ur decisions from Everson to Allen [as] permitt[ing] the States to provide church-related schools with secular, neutral, or nonideological services, facilities, or materials," 403 U. S., at 616, and thereafter, we regularly used "neutral" in this second sense of "secular" or "nonreligious." See, e. g., Tilton, supra, at 687-688 (characterizing subsidized teachers in Lemon as "not necessarily religiously neutral," but buildings as "religiously neutral"); Meek v. Pittenger, 421 U. S. 349, 365-366 (1975) (describing instructional materials as " 'secular, nonideological and neutral' " and "wholly neutral"); id., at 372 (describing auxiliary services as "religiously neutral"); Roemer, supra, at 751 (opinion of Blackmun, J.) (describing Tilton's approved buildings as "neutral or nonideological in nature"); 426 U. S., at 754 (describing Meek's speech and hearing services as "neutral and nonideological"); Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School Dist., 509 U. S. 1, 10 (1993) (discussing translator as "neutral service"); Agostini v. Felton, 521 U. S. 203, 232 (1997) (discussing need to assess whether nature of aid was "neutral and nonideological"); cf. Levitt v. Committee for Public Ed. & Religious Liberty, 413 U. S. 472, 478 (1973) (noting that District Court approved testing cost reimbursement as payment for services that were " 'secular, neutral, or nonideological' " in character, citing Lemon, 403 U. S., at
Page: Index Previous 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007