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Page Number: 46.0

20 

TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH OF COLUMBIA, INC. v.
COMER 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting
 

for  so  long  drawn  a  line  that  prohibits  public  funding  for 
houses  of  worship,  based  on  principles  rooted  in  this  Na-
tion’s understanding of how best to foster religious liberty,
supports  the  conclusion  that  public  funding  of  houses  of 
worship “is of a different ilk.”  Locke, 540 U. S., at 723. 

And as in Locke, Missouri’s Article I, §7, is closely tied to 
the state interests it protects.  See Locke, 540 U. S., at 724 
(describing  the  program  at  issue  as  “go[ing]  a  long  way 
toward  including  religion  in  its  benefits”).    A  straightfor-
ward  reading  of  Article  I,  §7,  prohibits  funding  only  for
“any church, sect, or denomination of religion, or in aid of 
any priest, preacher, minister or teacher thereof, as such.”
The Missouri courts have not read the State’s Constitution 
to  reach  more  broadly,  to  prohibit  funding  for  other  reli-
giously  affiliated  institutions,  or  more  broadly  still,  to 
prohibit the funding of religious believers.  See, e.g., Saint 
Louis  Univ.  v.  Masonic  Temple  Assn.  of  St.  Louis,  220 
S. W.  3d  721,  726  (Mo.  2007)  (“The  university  is  not  a 
religious institution simply because it is affiliated with the
Jesuits  or  the  Roman  Catholic  Church”).    The  Scrap  Tire 
Program  at  issue  here  proves  the  point.    Missouri  will 
fund a religious organization not “owned or controlled by a
church,” if its “mission and activities are secular (separate 
from religion, not spiritual in) nature” and the funds “will 
be  used  for  secular  (separate  from  religion;  not  spiritual) 
purposes  rather  than  for  sectarian  (denominational,  de-
voted to a sect) purposes.”  App. to Brief for Petitioner 3a; 

—————— 

id., at 3100, 3120; R. I. Const., Art. I, §3 (1842), in 6 id., at 3222–3223;
 
S. D. Const., Art. VI, §3 (1889), in id., at 3370; Tenn. Const., Art. XI, §3 
(1796), in id., at 3422;  Tex. Const., Art. I, §4 (1845), Art. I, §7 (1876), in 
id., at 3547–3548, 3622; Utah Const., Art. I, §4 (1895), in id., at 3702; 
Vt. Const., ch. I, Art. III (1777), in id., at 3740; Va. Const., Art. III, §11 
(1830), Art. IV, §67 (1902), in 7 id., at 3824, 3917; Wash. Const., Art. I, 
§11 (1889), in id., at 3874; W. Va. Const., Art. II, §9 (1861–1863), in id., 
at  4015;  Wis.  Const.,  Art.  I,  §18  (1848),  in  id.,  at  4078–4079;  Wyo. 
Const., Art. I, §19, Art. III, §36 (1889), in id., at 4119, 4124.