Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf
Page Number: 32

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

sometimes  bordered  on  religious  hostility.    Justice  Black, 
well known for his role in formulating the Court’s modern
Establishment Clause jurisprudence, once described Cath-
olic petitioners as “powerful sectarian religious propagan-
dists”  “looking  toward  complete  domination  and  suprem-
acy” of their “preferences and prejudices.”  Board of Ed. of 
Central School Dist. No. 1 v. Allen, 392 U. S. 236, 251 (1968) 
(dissenting  opinion).    Other  Members  of  the  Court  have 
characterized  religions  as  “divisive  forces.”    Edwards  v. 
Aguillard,  482  U. S.  578,  584  (1987)  (internal  quotation
marks  omitted);  Board  of  Ed.  of  Westside  Community 
Schools (Dist. 66) v. Mergens, 496 U. S. 226, 287 (1990) (Ste-
vens, J., dissenting) (internal quotation marks omitted); Il-
linois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Ed. of School Dist. No. 
71, Champaign Cty., 333 U. S. 203, 231 (1948) (Frankfur-
ter, J., concurring).  And the Court once described a statute 
permitting employees to request accommodations to avoid
work on the Sabbath as “arm[ing]” religious employees with 
the “absolute and unqualified right” to pursue their religion
“over all other . . . interests.”  Estate of Thornton v. Caldor, 
Inc., 472 U. S. 703, 709–711 (1985).  The siren song of reli-
gion is apparently so strong that we once held that public 
school  teachers  cannot  provide  assistance  at  parochial
schools, lest they “subtly (or overtly) conform their instruc-
tion to the environment in which they teach.”  School Dist. 
of  Grand  Rapids  v.  Ball,  473  U. S.  373,  388  (1985),  over-
ruled by Agostini v. Felton, 521 U. S. 203, 235 (1997).  In 
the  Court’s  view,  “[t]he  ‘atmosphere’  of  a  Catholic  school
ha[d] such power to influence the unsuspecting mind that 
it may move even public school . . . specialists to ‘conform’—
though their only contact with the school is to walk down
its halls.”  McConnell, Religious Freedom at a Crossroads,
59 U. Chi. L. Rev. 115, 122 (1992).

Although such hostility may not be overtly expressed by 
the Court any longer, manifestations of this “trendy disdain 
for deep religious conviction” assuredly live on.  Locke, 540