690
Souter, J., dissenting
liberty to the threat of dependence on state money, id., at 53; and it had already sparked political conflicts with opponents of public funding, id., at 54.3
The difficulty of drawing a line that preserved the basic principle of no aid was no less obvious some 20 years later in Board of Ed. of Central School Dist. No. 1 v. Allen, 392 U. S. 236 (1968), which upheld a New York law authorizing local school boards to lend textbooks in secular subjects to children attending religious schools, a result not self-evident from Everson's "general government services" rationale. The Court relied instead on the theory that the in-kind aid could only be used for secular educational purposes, 392 U. S., at 243, and found it relevant that "no funds or books are furnished [directly] to parochial schools, and the financial benefit is to parents and children, not to schools," id., at 243- 244.4 Justice Black, who wrote Everson, led the dissenters. Textbooks, even when " 'secular,' realistically will in some way inevitably tend to propagate the religious views of the favored sect," 392 U. S., at 252, he wrote, and Justice Douglas raised other objections underlying the establishment ban, id., at 254-266. Religious schools would request those books most in keeping with their faiths, and public boards would have final approval power: "If the board of education supinely submits by approving and supplying the sectarian or sectarian-oriented textbooks, the struggle to keep church
3 See Everson, 330 U. S., at 54, n. 47 (noting that similar programs had been struck down in six States, upheld in eight, and amicus curiae briefs filed by "three religious sects, one labor union, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the states of Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York").
4 The Court noted that "the record contains no evidence that any of the private schools . . . previously provided textbooks for their students," and "[t]here is some evidence that at least some of the schools did not." Allen, 392 U. S., at 244, n. 6. This was a significant distinction: if the parochial schools provided secular textbooks to their students, then the State's provision of the same in their stead might have freed up church resources for allocation to other uses, including, potentially, religious indoctrination.
Page: Index Previous 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007