• Supreme Court rules for Mo. church in playground case;
Church had sought public funding
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that churches have the same right as other charitable groups to seek state money for new playground surfaces and other non-religious needs.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices sided with Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Mo., which had sought a grant to put a soft surface on its preschool playground. The church was denied any money even though its application was ranked fifth out of44 submissions.
Chief Justice John Roberts said for the court that the state violated the First Amendment by denying a public benefit to an otherwise eligible recipient solely on account of its religious status. He called it “odious to our Constitution” to exclude the church from the grant program, even though the consequences are only “a few extra scraped knees.”
In dissent, Justice Sonya Sotomayor said the ruling weakens the nation’s longstanding commitment to separation of church and state.
The Trinity Lutheran decision sends a signal about far more than playground safety, said Charles Haynes, the founding director of the The Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C.
“It changes the landscape,” he said. “… This playground is part of what the church is doing in its ministry for children”
For decades, courts have ruled that states could have stricter rules separating church and state than the U.S. constitution.
But whereas in the past courts have said taxpayers could fund such things as buses taking children to religious schools, now the Supreme Court is saying the government can fund things in the schools themselves as long as they are deemed religiously neutral.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, RPa., said he was “extremely pleased to see the Supreme Court affirm the right of all persons to be treated equally, regardless of their religious beliefs.”
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference said in a statement it “shares the religious liberty optimism” voiced by bishops nationwide in the Trinity Lutheran case.
The case arose from an application the church submitted in 2012 to take part in Missouri’s scrap tire grant program, which reimburses the cost of installing a rubberized playground surface made from recycled tires.
The state’s Department of Natural Resources rejected the application, pointing to the part of the state constitution that says “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion.”
A recycled scrap tire is not religious, the church said in its Supreme Court brief.