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Page Number: 71.0

10 

ESPINOZA v. MONTANA DEPT. OF REVENUE 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

Establishing  Religious  Freedom,  supra,  at  545.  And,  in 
both  cases,  the  allocation  of  state  aid  to  such  purposes
threatens to “destroy that moderation and harmony which 
the  forbearance  of  our  laws  to  intermeddle  with  Religion,
has produced among its several sects.”  Memorial and Re-
monstrance, reprinted in Everson, 330 U. S., at 69. 

The  majority  argues  that  at  least  some  early  American
governments  saw  no  contradiction  between  bans  on  com-
pelled support for clergy and taxpayer support for religious 
schools  or  universities.   See  ante,  at  14,  n. 3.    That  some 
States appear not to have read their prohibitions on com-
pelled  support  to  bar  this  kind  of  sponsorship,  however,
does not require us to blind ourselves to the obvious contra-
diction between the reasons for prohibiting compelled sup-
port and the effect of taxpayer funding for religious educa-
tion.  Madison and Jefferson saw it clearly.  They opposed
including  theological  professorships  in  their  plans  for  the 
public University of Virginia and the Commonwealth hesi-
tated even to grant charters to religiously affiliated schools.
See  Buckley,  After  Disestablishment:  Thomas  Jefferson’s
Wall of Separation in Antebellum Virginia, 61 J. So. Hist. 
445, 453 (1995); Brant, supra, at 19–20. 

As for the majority’s examples, it suffices to say that the 
record is not so simple.  In Georgia, the Governor advocated
for  school  funding  legislation  in  terms  that  mirrored  the 
language of Virginia’s Assessment Bill.  See R. Gabel, Pub-
lic Funds for Church and Private Schools 241–242 (1937). 
And the general levies the majority cites from Pennsylvania
and New Jersey were not adopted until after the founding.
See id., at 215–216; see C. Kaestle, Pillars of the Republic: 
Common  Schools  and  American  Society,  1780–1860,  pp.
166–167 (1983).

That is not to deny that the history of state support for
denominational  schools  is  “ ‘complex.’ ”    Ante,  at  16.  But 
founding era attitudes toward compelled support of clergy 
were  no  less  complex.    Many  prominent  members  of  the