Cite as: 530 U. S. 793 (2000)
Souter, J., dissenting
opposed in this very case by at least one religious respondent 30 and numerous religious amici curiae 31 in a tradition claiming descent from Roger Williams). My concern with these arguments goes not so much to their details 32 as it
does to the fact that the plurality's choice to employ imputations of bigotry and irreligion as terms in the Court's debate makes one point clear: that in rejecting the principle of no aid to a school's religious mission the plurality is attacking the most fundamental assumption underlying the Establishment Clause, that government can in fact operate with neutrality in its relation to religion. I believe that it can, and so respectfully dissent.
30 One of the respondents describes herself as a "life-long, committed member of the Roman Catholic Church" who "objects to the government providing benefits to her parish school" because "[s]he has seen the chilling effect such entangling government aid has on the religious mission of schools run by her church." Brief for Respondents 1. She has been a member of the church for about 36 years, and six of her children attended different Jefferson Parish Catholic run schools. Id., at 1, n. 1.
31 E. g., Brief for Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs as Amicus Curiae; Brief for Interfaith Religious Liberty Foundation et al. as Amici Curiae; Brief for National Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty et al. as Amici Curiae.
32 I do not think it worthwhile to comment at length, for example, on the plurality's clear misunderstanding of our access-to-public-forum cases, such as Lamb's Chapel and Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U. S. 263 (1981), as "decisions that have prohibited governments from discriminating in the distribution of public benefits based on religious status or sincerity," ante, at 828, when they were decided on completely different and narrowly limited free-speech grounds. Nor would it be worthwhile here to engage in extended discussion of why the goal of preventing courts from having to "trol[l] through a person's or institution's religious beliefs," ibid., calls for less aid and commingling of government with religion, not for tolerance of their effects.
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