Kerby Anderson

Tires and religious liberty don’t seem like topics that would go together. But a religious dispute over playground surfaces made its way to the Supreme Court two weeks ago. Trinity Lutheran Church in Missouri applied to a state grant program to resurface its playground with recycled rubber. Although the application ranked high in the list of applicants, the state used its Blaine Amendment to turn them down.

The Blaine Amendment is named for Senator James Blaine who proposed the amendment in the latter part of the 19th century. It failed at the national level, but it and variations of it have found their way into 38 state constitutions. The original amendment was a not-so-veiled attempt to prevent Catholic schools from accessing public funds, but has also been used to prevent any religious organization from obtaining state funds.

Justice Samuel Alito wondered if a state used public money to protect buildings from terrorism, could it refuse to protect synagogues? What if you had a fund to repair buildings like the federal building bombed in Oklahoma City? Could that money also be used to repair a house of worship? The Missouri lawyer said that would not be permitted.

Apparently, some of the justices disagreed. Justice Elena Kagan was concerned that “people of a certain religious status are being prevented from competing in the same way everyone else is for a neutral benefit.”

If the court rules in favor of the church, which I think it may, the case may have implications for more than just church playgrounds. In the past, state Blaine Amendments have been used to challenge the constitutionality of school choice legislation. Opponents argue that public funds through a voucher or education savings account violate the Blaine Amendments because the money can be used at private, religious schools. I believe the court’s decision could benefit school choice programs across the nation.