Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf
Page Number: 14.0

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

11 

Opinion of the Court 

issue here.  Tr. of Oral Arg. 31.  General school aid, the De-
partment stresses, could be used for religious ends by some 
recipients,  particularly  schools  that  believe  faith  should 
“permeate[ ]” everything they do.  Brief for Respondents 39 
(quoting State ex rel. Chambers v. School Dist. No. 10, 155 
Mont. 422, 438, 472 P. 2d 1013, 1021 (1970)).  See also post, 
at 8, 13 (BREYER, J., dissenting).

Regardless,  those  considerations  were  not  the  Montana 
Supreme Court’s basis for applying the no-aid provision to
exclude  religious  schools;  that  hinged  solely  on  religious 
status.  Status-based discrimination remains status based 
even if one of its goals or effects is preventing religious or-
ganizations from putting aid to religious uses.
  Undeterred by Trinity Lutheran, the Montana Supreme
Court  applied  the  no-aid  provision  to  hold  that  religious 
schools could not benefit from the scholarship program.  393 
Mont., at 464–468, 435 P. 3d, at 612–614.  So applied, the
provision “impose[s] special disabilities on the basis of reli-
gious  status”  and  “condition[s]  the  availability  of  benefits
upon a recipient’s willingness to surrender [its] religiously 
impelled  status.”    Trinity  Lutheran,  582  U. S.,  at  ___–___ 
(slip op., at 9–10) (quoting Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, 
Inc. v. Hialeah, 508 U. S. 520, 533 (1993), and McDaniel v. 
Paty, 435 U. S. 618, 626 (1978) (plurality opinion) (altera-
tions omitted)).  To be eligible for government aid under the
Montana Constitution, a school must divorce itself from any 
religious control or affiliation.  Placing such a condition on
benefits or privileges “inevitably deters or discourages the 
exercise of First Amendment rights.”  Trinity Lutheran, 582 
U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 11) (quoting Sherbert v. Verner, 374 
U. S. 398, 405 (1963) (alterations omitted)).  The Free Ex-
ercise Clause protects against even “indirect coercion,” and 
a State “punishe[s] the free exercise of religion” by disqual-
ifying  the  religious  from  government  aid  as  Montana  did 
here.  Trinity Lutheran, 582 U. S., at ___–___ (slip op., at 
10–11)  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted).    Such  status-