Cite as: 536 U. S. 639 (2002)
Souter, J., dissenting
ters, involved one student's choice to spend funds from a general public program at a religious school (to pay for a sign-language interpreter). As in Witters, the Court reasoned that "[d]isabled children, not sectarian schools, [were] the primary beneficiaries . . . ; to the extent sectarian schools benefit at all . . . , they are only incidental beneficiaries." 509 U. S., at 12. Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of Univ. of Va., 515 U. S. 819 (1995), like Zobrest and Witters, involved an individual and insubstantial use of neutrally available public funds for a religious purpose (to print an evangelical magazine).
To be sure, the aid in Agostini was systemic and arguably substantial, but, as I have said, the majority there chose to view it as a bare "supplement." 521 U. S., at 229. And this was how the controlling opinion described the systemic aid in our most recent case, Mitchell v. Helms, 530 U. S. 793 (2000), as aid going merely to a "portion" of the religious schools' budgets, id., at 860 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment). The plurality in that case did not feel so uncomfortable about jettisoning substance entirely in favor of form, finding it sufficient that the aid was neutral and that there was virtual private choice, since any aid "first passes through the hands (literally or figuratively) of numerous private citizens who are free to direct the aid elsewhere." Id., at 816. But that was only the plurality view.
Hence it seems fair to say that it was not until today that substantiality of aid has clearly been rejected as irrelevant by a majority of this Court, just as it has not been until today that a majority, not a plurality, has held purely formal criteria to suffice for scrutinizing aid that ends up in the coffers of religious schools. Today's cases are notable for their stark illustration of the inadequacy of the majority's chosen formal analysis.
II
Although it has taken half a century since Everson to reach the majority's twin standards of neutrality and
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