Supreme Court case could pave the way for vouchers for Christian schools or do just the opposite

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Supreme Court case could pave the way for vouchers for Christian schools — or do just the opposite

By Julie Zauzmer April 19 at 4:40 PM

The specific question that the Supreme Court discussed Wednesday morning might have been settled before the justices even heard the case.

The matter concerns a Lutheran church in Missouri which applied for state funding to refurbish its preschool playground, but was told that the state Constitution forbid financially supporting a religious institution. The question of whether or not the church should be eligible for the playground funding made it all the way to the highest court in the nation — but then last week, Missouri’s new governor declared that he was changing the policy, and the church could apply for the playground program after all.

Case closed, right? ... Not for the Supreme Court, which heard arguments in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer on Wednesday despite the late-breaking news from Missouri. And not for advocates on both sides, who see potentially monumental consequences of the case, either for expanding churches’ access to government funds or for cutting them off from basic government services they have long enjoyed.

{Justices express sympathy to Missouri church at Supreme Court hearing}

Trinity Lutheran is “one of the most important religious liberty cases before the Supreme Court in years,” said Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, who ran a rally outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
....

Julie Zauzmer is a religion reporter. Follow @JulieZauzmer

[greymattermom]

1. Maybe it's just a playground safety issue

Can children who don't belong to that church access the playground?

[Freddie]

2. Yes

It's a preschool open to the public, not just church members.
Here in PA taxpayers pay for bus transportation to religious schools and some special programs (remedial reading and math). I have no problem with this as long as I'm not paying for the religious instruction.

[elleng]

3. Supreme Court Weighs State Aid to Church Programs.

'The Supreme Court seemed ready to chip away at the wall separating church and state on Wednesday, with several justices suggesting that states must sometimes provide aid to religious groups. The case concerned a Missouri program to make playgrounds safer that excluded ones affiliated with churches, but it had implications for all kinds of government aid to religious institutions.

“This is a clear burden on a constitutional right,” Justice Elena Kagan said of the exclusion in the playground program. . .

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the most consistent voice on the other side, though she seemed to be in the minority.

“They’re just saying,” she said of the state, “we don’t want to be involved with the church.”

The question in the case, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, No. 15-577, is whether officials in Missouri were entitled to reject an application from a Lutheran church for a grant to use recycled tires to resurface a playground.

Answering that question required the justices to consider doctrinal crosscurrents, including what earlier cases have called “the play in the joints” between two clauses of the First Amendment, which bar government establishment of religion and guarantee its free exercise.

“It’s a hard issue,” Justice Kagan said. “It’s an issue in which states have their own very longstanding law. It’s an issue on which I guess I’m going to say nobody is completely sure that they have it right.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/supreme-court-church-state.html?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028950271

[PoliticalPie]

4. Horrible idea, but wait until the conservative Christians realize this will include all religious

schools, including Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist.

[joet67]

5. If it is successful, it will surely also page the way for

The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster to do the same, or The Church of Cannabis.

[Orrex]

6. Thank goodness Gorsuch will be there to cast the tie-breaker

For a minute I was afraid that we might not funnel taxpayer dollars directly into church coffers.

Whew!