882
Souter, J., dissenting
Justice Blackmun, writing in Roemer, first called such a "general" or evenhanded program "neutral," in speaking of "facial neutrality" as a relevant consideration in determining whether there was an Establishment Clause violation. "[R]eligious institutions need not be quarantined from public benefits that are neutrally available to all." 426 U. S., at 746-747; see also id., at 746 (discussing buses in Everson and school books in Allen as examples of "neutrally available" aid). In Mueller v. Allen, 463 U. S. 388 (1983), the Court adopted the redefinition of neutrality as evenhandedness, citing Nyquist, 413 U. S., at 782, n. 38, and alluding to our discussion of equal access in Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U. S. 263 (1981). The Court upheld a system of tax deductions for sectarian educational expenses, in part because such a "facially neutral law," 463 U. S., at 401, made the deduction available for "all parents, including those whose children attend public schools and those whose children attend non-sectarian private schools or sectarian private schools," id., at 397. Subsequent cases carried the point forward. See, e. g., Witters v. Washington Dept. of Servs. for Blind, 474 U. S. 481, 487 (1986) (quoting Nyquist and characterizing program as making aid "available generally"); Zobrest, supra, at 8-9 (discussing "government programs that neutrally provide benefits to a broad class of citizens defined without reference to religion" and citing Mueller and Witters); Agostini, supra, at 231 (discussing aid allocated on the basis of "neutral, secular criteria that neither favor nor disfavor religion, . . . made available to both religious and secular beneficiaries on a nondiscriminatory basis"); see also Rosenberger, 515 U. S., at 839 ("[T]he guarantee of neutrality is respected, not offended, when the government, following neutral criteria and evenhanded policies, extends benefits to recipients whose ideologies and viewpoints, including religious ones, are broad and diverse").
In sum, "neutrality" originally entered this field of jurisprudence as a conclusory term, a label for the required rela-
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